SEAL BEACH : Home’s Dome Must Go, Council Rules

The long-simmering dispute over the rooftop observatory of a Marina Hill district house culminated this week when the City Council ordered that the domed structure be removed within a year.

Tuesday’s decision caps more than three years of neighborhood discord over the distinctive metal dome, which has become a controversial landmark since it was erected in 1990.

After hours of testimony from both opponents and supporters of the dome, council members agreed that the structure must go because it towers over neighboring houses and does not comply with zoning rules approved after the dome was built.

“I have a problem with it,” said Mayor Gwen Forsythe. “I don’t like the idea of something that large.”

Neither do some neighbors, who waged a campaign against the 30-foot-high dome even before it was completed.

But proponents are quick to point out that the plans for the dome were approved by the Planning Department and that building inspectors signed off on the structure when it was completed.

They also insist that the dome complied with planning regulations when it was built. Requiring that the structure comply with newer, more restrictive height rules is unfair, they argued.

“It’s inconceivable that now 3 1/2 years later that we would have to remove a part of our property at our own expense,” said Mark Thompson, who, along with his wife, Elizabeth, owns the dome home on Sandpiper Drive.

The Thompsons said they built the dome so that their children could learn about astronomy. They strongly denied claims by some residents that the structure could be used to “spy” on neighbors.

The Thompsons asked that the City Council grant them an exemption to the new height regulations--something the Planning Commission refused to do. Mark Thompson said that more than 100 other buildings that don’t comply with the rules have been granted exemptions and that it would be “discriminatory” to deny his request.

“We demand fair treatment,” he said, adding that he has spent more than $18,000 on the dome.

But council members sided with opponents, who decried the structure as a “Disneyland dome” that does not belong in a residential area.

The council rejected both Thompson’s offer to paint the dome’s shiny exterior to look less flashy and his request to keep the dome intact for five more years.

Dome Doomed City council says observatory must go