Big Lots vs. ‘Skinnies’

I am glad that the Real Estate section is finally giving some coverage to the “tall and skinny” housing controversy that is boiling over in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach (Letters, April 1).

However, I must take exception to the unfair statement made by writer Kathleen Parsons that all the tall and skinny 19-foot-wide houses have “taken from us is a bunch of dilapidated boxes with poorly maintained yards.” I consider that an insult to all the fine people who live in homes on the 50-foot-wide lots.

I invite her to drive down my street, the 1800 block of Harper in Hermosa Beach. The tall and skinny homes on my block are much more in need of paint and have many more weeds in their yards than do the homes on the big lots.

She states that the 19-foot-wide houses are “built for today’s way of life.” Maybe so, but I have my home on a 50-foot-wide lot for sale now and almost everyone who comes to see it lives in a “tall and skinny” and wants to move out.

Even Redondo Beach Councilwoman Kay Horrell has publicly stated that the city “screwed up” in allowing past zoning variations that led to so much increased density.

I wish Parsons had mentioned that she is a salesperson for Anastasi Builders, a company that has torn down many homes on 50-foot-wide lots in the beach communities, and erected two 19-foot-wide homes in their place. I think that bit of news would have put her comments on “tall and skinny” houses in perspective.

DONALD J. MOINE

Hermosa Beach

Editor’s note:

In her letter, Kathleen Parsons did mention that she was a realtor who had sold many “tall and skinnies . “ That fact was inadvertently edited from her letter. Parsons confirmed by telephone that she works for Anastasi Builders, but added: “I bought one of those ‘tall and skinny’ houses because it fit my lifestyle, not because I, in any way, was trying to promote myself or Anastasi.”