3-Story House Falls Victim to Height Attack

Emad Ali Hassan’s 6-year-old custom home was ordered decapitated early Wednesday, as the City Council told him to tear off the top level of the three-story house because it exceeds the city’s height limit.

After years of legal wrangling, the council voted 4 to 3 to reject Hassan’s request for a code variance for the extra six feet. The ruling effectively means Hassan must either remove the entire top story or redesign his house. Hassan said he plans to sue the city for originally approving the plan and six years later ordering him to tear part of it down.

“They will tear this house down over my dead body,” Hassan fumed. “They’ll never touch it.”

Since the home was built in 1985 with city approval, it has been mired in legal disputes, has pitted two neighbors against each other and has divided city officials.

More than 100 residents signed a petition opposing the home, which some referred to as “a monstrous hotel.” They said it blocked their views and did not blend into the neighborhood.

The city had approved the home by applying a more lenient building code, but neighbor Charles Reince sued the city, protesting that the house blocks part of the ocean view that Reince had enjoyed, and made his property value drop $50,000.

An Orange County Superior Court judge upheld the city but last March a state appellate court ruled that the city had erred in originally approving Hassan’s home because it exceeds the height limit and blocks neighbors’ views. The court ordered Huntington Beach either to grant Hassan a variance or order him to conform with the code.