Additions to Smaller Homes OK : Compromise: Council approves measure that bars architectural monsters but lets owners of more modest houses make needed expansions.

Concerned about the proliferation of hulking two-story buildings that loom over neighborhoods of woodland cottages in the city’s hillside neighborhoods, the City Council last January placed a lid on most hillside construction.

The problem was, however, that the lid was so tight that even homeowners with legitimate expansion plans were stymied.

On Tuesday, council members approved a compromise which, they contend, weeds out the architectural hippopotamuses while letting the owners of smaller homes build much-needed additions. A more restrictive measure was defeated last week.

“This deals with the mansionization problem while it allows homes to be remodeled,” said Councilman William Paparian.

Thus, people like Claude and Nancy Kent, who bought a run-down 1,000-square-foot cottage on a flat lot in the East Arroyo section of the city a year ago, can now get a building permit to add on a bedroom and a bathroom.

“It’s a tumbledown house built in the early part of the century,” Nancy Kent said. “We just want to restore and remodel it. We haven’t the slightest interest in overbuilding.”

The couple, who now live in downtown Los Angeles, have been paying property taxes and mortgage installments in Pasadena since November, 1990, without being allowed to remodel their home.

The council action Tuesday, which allows the Kents and others at last to apply for building permits, still protects hillsides from development excesses until a permanent ordinance can be put in place, council members said.

The wording of the moratorium was considered crucial because current restrictions requiring review of proposed hillside projects by city officials and neighborhood groups, are scheduled to lapse Nov. 6. Members of a task force that is preparing permanent legislation worried that developers would rush in with oversized projects.

“The concern was that plans for a lot of 8,000 and 10,000-square-foot homes would be submitted, and the city would have no basis for turning them down,” said William York, a planning commissioner and a member of the Hillside Development Task Force.

The temporary measure sets limits on floor space with regard to the size of lots. For example, the floor space of a house on a 40,000-square-foot hillside lot can be expanded to 20% of the lot plus 500 square feet, or a total of 8,500 square feet. It also exempts houses on flat lots--that is, with average grades of 15% or less--from hillside restrictions.

According to a city survey, the measure allows for the expansion of about 90% of the city’s hillside homes.

“There are a lot of smaller 1950s ranch-style homes that, in my opinion, could be slated for major make-overs and additions,” said architect Robert G. Tyler, a member of the task force. “It’s largely due to social trends. You see a lot of grandmothers and grown children living at home these days.”

Even with the protections, York and others worried that developers may seek to test the moratorium with proposals for larger projects. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see speculators down at City Hall on Nov. 7 with six applications,” York said. “The zoning staff is going to have its hands full.”

Meanwhile, a permanent measure, placing restrictions on plans for houses of more than 6,000 square feet or houses on grades of 50% or greater, has been wending its way through Planning Commission hearings.

With City Council support, the permanent measure could become law as soon as mid-January, senior planner Dean Sherer said.