Monterey Park Limits Wet Bars in Drive Against Illegal Rentals

City officials last week bellied up to the wet bar and served up a novel ordinance:

No more of those suspicious-looking wet bars “that could constitute a kitchen.”

You know the kind: complete with cabinets, spacious countertops and enough room for a refrigerator and a stove--in other words, a de facto second kitchen.

The City Council passed the ban Monday in an effort to clamp down on the illegal conversion of single-family homes into rental units.

All too often, Planning Director Margo Wheeler said, she has seen floor plans to add several bedrooms, a bathroom, and a “wet bar” to a house--sometimes with a separate entrance leading to the addition. The intent, she said, is to move in extended-family members or rent the rooms to another family.

She said she was unable, however, to provide any statistics on the phenomenon.

“By the configuration and the size of the room, the way the counters are placed, it’s very clear that what they plan to do is have separate units and a separate kitchen,” Wheeler said.

“All the homeowner needs to do is plug in a stove and refrigerator and there’s a second kitchen.”

But there may be problems deciding what kinds of wet bars will be allowed.

“This admittedly is a somewhat subjective and difficult decision to make in terms of a wet bar being converted to a kitchen--when that’s the case and when it’s not,” City Atty. Anthony Canzoneri said.

For that reason, he said, under the new law, city rejection of plans for a wet bar can be appealed to the Planning Commission for a fee of $244. If the homeowner prevails, the fee will be refunded.

Councilman Samuel Kiang, who cast the only vote against the wet-bar ban, argued that it would unfairly encroach upon homeowners’ rights to build bona fide wet bars.

“I don’t know of any other city that has any limitation on where a wet bar can be placed or how it can be placed,” Kiang said last week. “We’re all speculating at this point. The next thing you know, (we’ll) be legislating how people’s bedrooms look.”

Councilwoman Marie Purvis disagreed.

“When they get into seven beds, seven baths, and are putting wet bars all over the place, you know something’s wrong,” she said.

The wet-bar ban is one of several measures Monterey Park is taking to prevent more than one family from residing under one roof. Last week, the City Council also voted to ban exterior staircases, commonly installed when a house is divided into upstairs and downstairs units.

Other San Gabriel Valley cities, including Arcadia and San Gabriel, are fighting so-called “mansionization” of their neighborhoods by tightening building codes to reduce the bulk and height of a house and to require bigger yards in single-family neighborhoods.

West Covina officials plan to discourage illegal conversion of guest houses into rental units by limiting their size and banning wet bars, microwave ovens or kitchens in guest houses.

Wet bars-turned-kitchens are a problem in the beach cities, where oceanfront homes sometimes are equipped with several wet bars, then split into two or three units and rented out in violation of zoning restrictions, Hermosa Beach Building and Safety Director William Grove said.

Although Hermosa Beach does not have an outright ban on suspicious-looking wet bars, homeowners wishing to add wet bars may be required to allow city officials to inspect the home, he said.