Breaking the Code : Laguna Homeowner Could Get Year in Jail for Illegal Additions

Shortly after he made $55,000 worth of improvements to his two-story home a few years ago, Victor Glashow was awarded the Beautification Award of Merit for “outstanding contribution to the beauty of Laguna Beach.”

Next week, he could receive up to a year in jail because those same improvements--a second unit, a spa, a redwood deck and a cedar shed--were in violation of local codes.

This seaside community is dotted with “bootleg” apartments, additional units that many property owners build without permits. And Glashow conceded recently that when he did this eight years ago, he knew permits were required.

But as he watched workers this week tearing down some of the changes to his property, Glashow complained that the city has unfairly singled him out by taking his case so far.

“I knew (it) was a bootleg apartment. But since one of three houses in Laguna Beach has bootleg apartments, I didn’t think it was a very serious thing,” said Glashow, 52, a part-time computer consultant. “I have since learned it is.”

City officials agree that bootleg units are commonplace in their city, and that they take action on only those violations brought to their attention. But they say most people who are notified of the violations usually try to remedy the situation. Glashow, they contend, did not.

“It’s only when the property owner is completely intransigent that we end up in court. And when that happens, the courts are pretty angry about it,” City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said. ‘We hate to do it, but when we do it we’re serious and we’re not going to just let the case drop.”

Six months after they first asked him to bring his improvements into compliance, the city filed misdemeanor charges against Glashow for violating city zoning laws. Four of the charges were dropped, and Glashow pleaded guilty to two of the six counts. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing.

His offenses include failure to maintain a 25-foot setback from a natural watercourse--because his home traverses a flood drain--and construction and maintenance of a deck without a permit.

The maximum sentence is a year in County Jail, said Laguna Beach Deputy City Atty. Patrick Rafferty, but he added that it is unlikely Glashow would receive that penalty. The city is not seeking jail time, but a judge will decide the penalty.

The city has also ordered Glashow to remove the second unit and demolish additions valued by one realtor at up to $75,000.

When he purchased his new home eight years ago, Glashow said, he had the builder convert the downstairs into a second apartment and expand the rear of the house to add a sun room and redwood deck with a spa, sauna and cedar toolshed. He subsequently rented the apartment to one artist and the sun room to another.

Since he pleaded guilty, workers have been converting the narrow downstairs kitchen into a hollow passageway and begun rebuilding the indoor stairway that connects the two floors. The deck and sun room have been replaced with a dirt lot. One artist who was living there has moved out. The other is packing.

Glashow said he is stunned by the turn of events and will move as soon as he straightens out his legal problems.

“I still don’t know who reported me,” he said. “My feeling is other people should know what can happen to them and be prepared.”

In 1985, shortly before receiving the beautification award, Glashow said he received a letter from Frank saying his sewer and trash service fees were being levied for a two-family home. He said he took it as a sign that his second unit was accepted by the city.

But a year ago, the first hint of trouble arrived in the form of a letter from the city asking to inspect his home. After determining the single-family home had been converted to a duplex and the addition was done without permits, the city advised Glashow in June to either apply for permits or to remove the second unit and the unauthorized construction.

Glashow retained attorney Don Black and hired an architect to draw plans for the already completed design and a hydrologist to document that the addition does not interfere with any waterway beneath the home. He said he began the process of submitting applications for the changes.

But then the city began “nit-picking” at his work, he said.

Glashow also said he believes his attorney mishandled the case.

Black would not comment on some aspects of what he described as a “fairly sophisticated problem,” while the case is still pending. But he said he had advised his client to hire someone better-versed in building requirements to help him “shepherd” the plans through.

Rafferty said officials asked the city attorney in January to file charges against Glashow because they believed he had had plenty of time to respond. His defiance was evident, they said, when he continued to try to rent out the apartment until just before the court date.

“He’s not completely the innocent lamb that he appears to be,” Rafferty said. “I don’t think he’s entirely justified in shifting all the blame to his attorney.”

Glashow’s next-door neighbor, Beverly Byrens, said she feels “very badly” that he was singled out.

“I’m sure a quarter or maybe more of the places in Laguna have illegal additions, and everyone knows that,” she said. “I don’t think what he’s done has hurt anybody and, in fact, if it hurt anybody it would hurt us. It’s right at our property line.”

David Cook, an artist who spent the past five years painting on Glashow’s deck and sleeping in the greenhouse, said he lost a “perfect living situation.”

“It’s crazy. I can’t believe it happened,” he said. “It kind of turned everything upside down for me.”

Cook, 38, who was paying $475 a month, said he cannot afford higher rent and will soon move back east.

“They (city officials) say how much they want it to be an artist’s community,” he said, “but the fact is, they don’t do a thing to help out.”

Glashow, in the meantime, said he has been treated like a “hardened criminal.”

“I’m able to laugh about it now,” Glashow said last week, sitting at his dining room table amid stacks of papers documenting his travail. “But, believe me, when I came back from that courtroom, I was on the verge of a heart attack.”