Homeowner Clinging to Wall : Dispute: Man says developer wants to knock down concrete barrier because he refused to sell his 1st Avenue property to the builder.
An L-shaped concrete wall on two sides of an Arcadia property is the center of a dispute between a developer and a homeowner who refused to sell his property to the developer.
K. R. Choi, 47, who bought the home on 1st Avenue three years ago, says the wall is on his property and he wants it to remain.
But developer John E. Plount said his survey, which was confirmed by a city planner, shows the wall encroaches 10 inches onto Plount’s seven-acre property. Plount wants to tear it down and build another concrete wall.
The city required a wall to serve as a barrier between Plount’s proposed development of 40 luxury homes and Choi’s beige and green brick and stucco home.
Choi, an electrical engineer, said Plount is threatening to remove the wall because Choi refused to sell the developer his 8,850-square-foot property in late 1989.
Workers have cleared the seven-acre site and begun building the new wall next to the south end of Choi’s property. Plount’s attorney, Marcy Saint John, said she is researching what to do and the existing six-foot-high wall will stay for the time being.
But, Choi and his wife H. K., 37, are wary. They said workers have knocked down a white picket fence, torn down a chain-link fence, removed shrubbery and dumped debris in the family’s yard while their children played. Now they are afraid to let the children, ages 6, 4 and 3, play outside because of the heavy construction equipment.
The Chois are afraid the workers will tear down the disputed wall. So they take turns watching while heavy machinery buzzes near the old wall.
On June 4, H. K. Choi said she stood in front of the wall for 7 1/2 hours. Last week, her husband stayed home from work for five days to keep an eye on workers.
K. R. Choi thinks the wall dispute is retaliation for his refusal to sell his property to the developer. “We moved here to raise our three children and send them to nearby schools,” he said. “I told them don’t interfere with our house. Now he’s harassing us, and threatens to remove the wall without a permit.”
Plount, president of J. E. Plount & Co., said the wall dispute is a separate issue from selling the property. The development, he said, has been approved by the city and cannot be changed without a public hearing.
“I have no interest in the (Choi) property any more,” he said. “It would be too costly and time-consuming to include his lot. This is behind us.”
Plount acknowledged his workers accidentally knocked down the picket fence while clearing the site, but he said they put it back up immediately. He said the chain-link fence was merely moved from his property to Choi’s.
“I am not harassing him,” Plount said. “He’s an individual that completely refuses to accept the reality of the clear facts.”
But Plount agreed that the animosity between the two started when he offered to buy Choi’s property for more than its assessed value. Plount had already bought 18 other properties on the site, along 1st Avenue between Colorado and Foothill boulevards.
Plount would not say what he offered for Choi’s property, but Choi said Plount offered to buy the house for about $300,000 plus build a new house on part of the property in exchange for the whole lot.
According to 1990 county assessment records, Choi’s property is worth $223,165. Choi paid $215,000 for it in 1988, the records show. Other properties in the area range in value from $30,503 to $404,940.
“I’m a small real estate developer and builder, not a big guy or wealthy developer coming along thumping the little guy,” Plount said. “He’s giving himself a heart attack.”
Plount said Choi is harassing him by calling the police all the time when his workers are doing their job.
Choi also charged that police and city officials are discriminating against him in the dispute because he is Asian. The officials said they do not get involved in property line disputes.
But Corky Nicholson, an Arcadia associate planner who has acted as an informal mediator, said that after an upset Choi came to City Hall about two weeks ago, he and a building inspector measured the lot dimensions. He said that they matched Plount’s marked boundary lines.
Nicholson said city officials were hoping Choi would come to see the new wall as a benefit and drop his objections. “Our job is to assure that what is built is from the approved plans,” Nicholson said. “There’s no question that the (existing) wall encroaches” on Plount’s land.
