His Quest for House Stripes Out

Vasile Petean fled Romania 14 years ago to escape a communist regime that crushed individual expression and civil liberties.

But since moving to the United States, Petean has enjoyed the freedom to express his views--like protesting a court order by painting a San Juan Capistrano house he’s building in zebra stripes.

The Orange County Superior Court order issued May 6 bars him from building a two-story home in the gated, pricey McCracken Hill neighborhood.

“It makes me think about what happened under communism,” he said about the order and the events that led up to it.

The black paint with the white stripes soon will be gone, he said, because of the threat of a public nuisance lawsuit by the city. But the legal wranglings that transformed one neighborhood’s conflict into an unusual public display probably will continue.

What angers Petean is that the city approved his plans for a two-story house, then notified his neighbors that they could block it under an old property restriction that, Petean said, wasn’t even recorded on his deed.

Ironically, he says, the restriction imposed when the land was subdivided in 1959 limits construction to single-story houses--but doesn’t limit the height of any building.

“I want to build a house that’s compatible with the neighborhood,” Petean said.

The Mission Viejo resident has run into what home buyers are increasingly finding to be an aggravation--the rules imposed by developers or homeowners associations. The power that many developers and homeowner groups wield has made them essentially second governments, privately run and sometimes able to do what municipalities can’t.

What frustrates Petean is that he never knew about the developer’s rules until several neighbors--including City Councilwoman Collene Campbell--sued the longtime BMW mechanic in January 1998 for violating the two-story restriction.

The constraint was not part of the records he received when buying the vacant land in 1995. A state Supreme Court ruling that year said such restrictions must be a public record but don’t have to be part of individual deeds, said Petean’s attorney, Anthony Chavos. Usually, they show up on title searches of past property owners, he said.

Petean contends the land-use limits on only 15 units in the subdivision are an anachronism.

“They are very old. They were written in the ‘50s. They’re outdated,” he said. “There are many violations in the community. I could say every single homeowner has a violation in some way.”

Gregory Wanlass, a lawyer for the six neighbors who filed the lawsuit, said Petean never considered his neighbors’ rights.

“The facts tell you this is a guy who said, ‘I want to build this house and I’m going to find some way to build this house and not any other house,’ ” he said. “I don’t see any effort [on Petean’s part] to make any sort of compromise.”

After the neighbors sued, Petean altered his plan to indicate he was building a single-story unit, but the design was the same and the house was just as tall. The city approved the amended plan but didn’t send notices to neighbors again. Earlier this year, Petean started construction. However, Superior Court Commissioner Julee Robinson ruled early last week that Petean’s house was indeed a two-story home and ordered him to stop.

Two days later, Petean spent six hours painting the house black with zebra stripes. Neither he nor his attorney know when he will paint over it, but Chavos said it will be “sooner rather than later.” The city gave him until Monday.

“It’s just childish,” said Collene Campbell’s husband, Gary. The councilwoman declined to comment.

Petean has spent about $250,000 on the land and the building so far, not including attorney fees. He may appeal the court’s ruling, his lawyer said, but plans for the home, now a shell, are up in the air.

“He doesn’t have to tear it down,” Chavos said. “What we have now doesn’t violate any height requirements.”

Chavos said the 25-foot-high home is under the city’s maximum height of 35 feet, and the property restrictions don’t limit the height. “He could modify it into single story,” the lawyer said.

Gary Campbell said such a change wouldn’t violate the letter of the land-use constraints but would violate their intent.

“You don’t find 25-foot one-story houses,” he said. “I’m sure that’s what the people developing the [restrictions] originally back in the ‘50s thought.”