Laguna Beach : Council Lets Couple Keep Their Pergola

The City Council has unanimously overturned a decision by the design review board that called for a couple to dismantle a gazebo-like structure erected in their garden.

Property owner Evangeline Crockett said Thursday that she was “shocked” by the decision but impressed that council members came to see her pergola while juggling other city business, including a massive landslide.

“Every one of those City Council members . . . even though they were so busy with that, came over to see this little gazebo,” she said.

Last month, the Board of Adjustment/Design Review denied Crockett and her husband, Richard Manchester, permission to keep their pergola, an airy 13-by-16-foot structure that rests on a brick base and has four pillars with wooden slats across the top.

Crockett said she and her husband built the structure without a permit because city workers had told them it was not required. Later, she said, she and her husband learned that they needed special city permission after all because the pergola was constructed too close to the property line.

Zoning Administrator Jack Connors said the couple may have misunderstood what the staff members said originally.

Last month, the design review board rejected the couple’s request for a variance, saying there were other places on the property where the structure could have been built without requiring special permission, Connors said.

But during an appeal hearing Tuesday, the council concluded that the pergola deserved a variance and granted the couple permission to keep the structure.

“It was much to-do about nothing,” Councilman Wayne L. Peterson said.

Mayor Lida Lenney said she was influenced by Crockett’s assertion that she allows neighbors to use the area where the pergola stands “as kind of a community garden.”

“It seemed clear to me it was much more of a community benefit than a community detriment,” she said.

Crockett said she spent Wednesday making and delivering bouquets for neighbors who had supported her by signing a petition and attending city meetings. “The next thing I’m going to do is throw a huge party for all the supporters,” she said.