LAGUNA BEACH : Dentist Gets OK to Build Rock House

After months of dickering with plans, the city’s Design Review Board has unanimously approved a proposal to build a three-bedroom home carved within a landmark rock formation near Aliso Pier.

“It’s hard to believe. It is just sinking in,” said Ed Bowler, a 44-year-old El Cajon dentist whose family has been struggling to get the home built since his father bought the property 23 years ago with the idea of retiring there.

“It was going to be his dream home,” Bowler said. His father, a retail salesman, died in 1986.

Now there is only one major step left in the family’s quest--obtaining approval of the California Coastal Commission, Bowler said.

On Friday, the architect of the house, Brion Jeannette, was hopeful that the commission would be pleased by the numerous conditions placed on the project by the city and that construction might begin early next year.

Jeannette said that passing the city Design Review Board was a giant hurdle, since the board had originally rejected the project in January. The Bowlers appealed to the City Council, which said the house could be built if the size was reduced and other problems ironed out.

Jeannette said that since January numerous plan alterations were made at an added cost of about $30,000 in consulting fees, boosting the construction cost by $150,000 for a total of $800,000. As a final concession, 700 square feet were cut out of the house, which is now planned to contain 3,000 square feet.

The Bowler family, including a sister and another brother, have pitched in to help pay the bills, Bowler said.

The plan approved by the Design Review Board Thursday night calls for a modernistic house to be built within the craggy, plant-covered boulder known as Aliso Rock.

The rock would be hollowed out like a pumpkin to accommodate the house. Then it would be recapped and replanted so it would appear largely unchanged to thousands of Coast Highway motorists.

Among other provisions, Bowler said the family has agreed to post a $27,000 bond to make certain that the native vegetation that is replanted survives for five years.