Colliding Points of View Impair Laguna Rebuilding : Recovery: Plans for bigger homes in fire area inflame passions of neighbors whose outlook is increasingly grim.

Inside the meeting room, Jim Allen listened quietly, his face expressionless, a loyal neighbor at his side, as this city’s oft-maligned Design Review Board all but assured him he could go forward with plans to rebuild on his fire-ravaged lot.

Once outside, however, the 63-year-old Allen released the breath he had seemed to be holding throughout the hearing and broke into a grin that left his ruddy face aglow.

“I might as well figure it’s passed,” said Allen, whose wood and glass house was one of nine destroyed on Buena Vista Way in last October’s wildfire. “It looks like we’re on our way.”

Allen and his wife, Jackie, 18-year residents of this once-picturesque section of the Temple Hills area, are but a step away from an important milestone on the neighborhood’s road back from last fall’s devastation. They appear virtually certain to become the first of their neighbors to emerge from Laguna’s often arduous design review process and rebuild the elegant home they lost to the flames.

Moments before the Allens’ victory, though, the hopes of another of Buena Vista Way’s fire victims were dashed, at least for now, when the powerful review board chastised Tom Homan for planning an imposing, two-story structure that would have “annihilated” the ocean view of his nearest neighbor. The board directed Homan to begin his plans again.

The two cases, involving homes that stood just 50 yards apart before the fire, illustrate conflicts that are increasingly common, as this seaside village struggles to recover from the devastating Oct. 27 blaze, which damaged or destroyed more than 400 homes.

And they offer a lesson: those who believed they had found a silver lining in the ashes--the chance to build bigger, better dwellings than they had before--may find themselves pitted against neighbors who are equally determined to hang on to valued aspects of their pre-fire lifestyles, such as priceless ocean views.

“There’s a feeling that the fire victims deserve every break they get and I concur,” said Carol Nilsen, whose 80-year-old father stayed behind during the evacuation and saved her home, just uphill from Homan’s lot on Canyon View Drive, the street above Buena Vista.

“They’ve suffered and they need to come back strongly and well. But we also went through the fire, and our house survived because we fought to save it. And now we’re struggling again to retain what we had before.”

Chris Abel, president of the Laguna Beach Architectural Guild, whose office is designing new homes for 16 fire victims, said such neighborhood conflicts can now be found throughout the city.

“We’re all having a real tough time now because of the fire victims trying to increase the size of their houses and getting the neighbors fired up about loss of views,” he said. “The emotions are just really running rampant.”

The dispute between Homan and several residents, particularly next-door neighbor and fellow fire victim Sheila Patterson, is the latest in a series of blows to hit Buena Vista Way. Each development has further reduced the number of original residents likely to return.

First came the firestorm, which incinerated nine houses and left some residents unwilling to endure the stresses of rebuilding. Next were reports that evidence of an ancient landslide had been found under several lots on Buena Vista and surrounding streets, prompting longtime residents Don and Jo Williamson to buy elsewhere.

The suspected landslide, the subject of a geological investigation now underway, already has delayed the rebuilding plans of several others who live within the 65-lot study area.

And now, with the Design Review Board warning that it would reject his plans to increase the height of his home from 12 to 21 feet, Homan says he may not return to Buena Vista Way, where he has lived since 1985.

“I think it all boils down to politics and the city deciding to allow my neighbors to abuse my rights,” Homan said angrily after Thursday’s hearing, adding that he has spent at least $15,000 on plans and revisions that are now useless.

“I may have to go to the city. I may have to go to court. And if I can’t have the house I want, why should I even go back?”

Jackie Allen, who is not involved in the dispute and has lamented the loss of a budding community spirit that developed on the street soon after the fire, said she hoped Homan would change his mind.

“It’s so sad this has to happen,” she said. “It’s bad enough what’s happening to our street without all this. I just really want everybody to be congenial and have a happy street when we all get through.”

Meanwhile, the Allens’ own plan for a new, Mediterranean-style home at the end of Buena Vista Way sailed through the design review process virtually without a hitch. Patterson, the strongest critic of Homan’s plan, spoke out in support of the Allens, whose home before the fire stood directly across the way from hers.

The Allens’ architect, John McInnes, was promised approval of his design if he widened the size of the columns supporting the house before returning before the board this week. The Allens are still waiting for a settlement from their insurance company and must secure a building permit before breaking ground. They hope to begin construction on their new home in August.

Homan’s scenario seems likely to occur with increasing frequency in Laguna in the weeks to come, as the desires of those hoping to rebuild conflict with the rights of other fire victims and the owners of existing homes.

“A lot of people want to build bigger houses after the fire and I think it’s OK that they should do that. They’re trying to make the best out of a bad event,” said J.J. Gasparotti, a contractor and one of five members of the Design Review Board.

“But we’re trying to preserve the character of the neighborhood if that’s possible, and if someone wants to rebuild bigger, they can’t take away the view of somebody else.”

The City Council-appointed review board, which must approve plans for all fire victims who want to build new homes at least 50% larger than the ones they lost, has often been controversial in Laguna, prompting frequent complaints about decisions perceived as arbitrary.

But several architects said last week that recent rulings had been more reasonable than in the past. Many credited Chairman Bob Chapman for the improvement.

“It has really improved considerably in the last six months,” said Abel, who has worked as an architect in Laguna for more than 30 years. “I really feel that now you’ve got a number of competent people on there who are looking at what you’re doing from an objective viewpoint. There are fewer subjective decisions.”

Nonetheless, any proposal that threatens homeowners’ cherished views has always been sensitive in Laguna, whose hills and seaside location provide many residents with sweeping vistas of the Pacific and the city’s landmarks, including Main Beach and the Hotel Laguna. Important to many for their beauty alone, the views of the water can also significantly affect a home’s resale value.

“Everyone has a very personal idea about what makes a great view,” longtime Laguna real estate agent Louise Turner said. “Some want a sweeping view, while others will settle for a little glimpse of the water. There’s really no formula for it, but if the view is wiped out entirely, it can cost the owner thousands in property value.”

Homan’s problems began in April, when he and architect Hugo Soria submitted rebuilding plans to the city before consulting the neighbors who would be affected, including Patterson. Before the fire, her house stood just north of Homan’s, around a slight bend.

She and two other residents, whose homes just uphill from Homan’s survived the fire, immediately protested several parts of his plan, most significantly that his new house would block all or part of their views.

In a May 17 letter to Homan, Patterson accused him of “deliberately misleading” her and others about the size of the new home and how it might affect their views.

Homan and Soria say they have tried to meet their neighbors halfway. They lowered the roof line of the planned house, shrank the size of its master bedroom and agreed to install awnings over some second-story windows that had caused one neighbor concerns about privacy.

Homan acknowledges he declined to consider suggestions that he dig a deeper foundation, rather than building a new home on his old slab, which stood more than a full story above street level.

He also said he had been assured that his old foundation was sound despite the fire, a point that both his neighbors and the Design Review Board questioned.

At the meeting, Patterson argued that if the home were built, she would find herself gazing at an “unmitigated slab of stucco” instead of the ocean view she enjoyed before the fire, when she could look over or around the corner of Homan’s one-story home.

Nilsen and Warren Toman, whose home above Homan’s also made it through the fire, told the board that the planned house would impair their views, a change Toman earlier had likened to erasing the lower half of a much-loved painting.

Homan heatedly dismissed the view complaints and accused Patterson, whom he had characterized before the fire as a friend, of being selfish. And he called the suggestions that he lower the starting point of his house “idiotic” and “poppycock.”

“What they’re talking about is beyond thought,” said Homan, 41. “I don’t buy it. . . . I think I should be given my rights, period.”

In turn, however, each board member told Homan they could not support his plan, largely because his home would block Patterson’s view. Before he returned before them in a month, they suggested, Homan should explore ways to lower the house, perhaps by excavating his hillside and placing a second story below the level of his old first floor.

Chapman said the board was simply acting on the City Council’s promise to help its fire victims regain what they had lost.

“We feel that means they should be able to get back the same view they had before too,” he said.

Later, Patterson sounded conciliatory.

“I’d really like to see everybody come home after the fire, but I don’t want to lose everything in the process, either,” she said. “My feeling was that he could have had all the view he wanted without interfering with anyone else, but he just got greedy.”

Battle Plans

Two Buena Vista Way residents who submitted rebuilding plans to Laguna Beach’s Design Review Board have met with very different results. Neighbors and the board balked at one plan for a much larger house, but a nearby home received the green light.

Couple’s plan wins unanimous approval

Neighbors fear new house would block view