Raising the Roof in Brea

It was just a shade of a difference: Monray Masonry Buff No. 1667, instead of the approved Monier Mission Buff No. 1667.

In keeping with Brea’s strict palette, a divided Planning Commission this month ordered a businessman to stop construction of a building in Olinda Village because roof tiles were a tad too light.

Shirish Shah, who had been struggling for two years to meet a variety of Planning Commission edicts for the 5,000-square-foot electronics warehouse, fought back. In a rare move, the City Council voted 3 to 2 to overturn the order and finally back him up.

Sort of.

A majority on the council decided last week that the five-member commission had gone too far in deciding minute details of Shah’s project, on which he already has spent nearly $1 million.

“I do agree . . . that we need a standard,” Councilman Roy Moore said. “But it disturbs me that as a city we’re micromanaging things to such an extent that we’re determining the exact color of a roof. I think a rule that calls for earth tones would be better.”

But in a city that only three months ago demanded landscaped beauty for a massive supermarket warehouse in the industrial section of town, several council members hastened to say they didn’t want to make a habit of second-guessing the panel.

“If you don’t uphold Planning Commission decisions, then no one wants to be on a Planning Commission because they feel they’re just a dummy,” said Councilwoman Lynn Daucher, who voted with Mayor Bev Perry to uphold the commission’s order against Shah and maintain the commission’s demands for architectural conformity in Olinda Village.

Olinda is a rural area of Brea that is dotted with a few hundred mission-style homes that have a darker tile roof on a lighter colored house. Its curved, generously landscaped streets often are occupied by horseback riders and luxury cars. Out of many a villager’s backyard is still the rugged landscape oil drillers must have seen when they settled the place more than a century ago.

Shah, who is building the warehouse for his electronics testing business, said he is relieved at the council’s decision, and wished he had gone to the council sooner.

At the Planning Commission’s insistence, Shah already has changed the project’s design theme, lowered the structure’s foundation and installed tiny, expensive custom windows throughout two years of construction. He said it would have cost about $3,000 more to replace the tile roofing on the warehouse, which is near his home in the village.

“I think it is a relatively small matter,” Shah said of the tile color. “It [the building] should have been done faster.”

The Shah project marks the seventh time in 12 years that council members have overruled the Planning Commission’s recommendations. However, none of those earlier decisions involved something as minute as the shade of roofing tile, according to city documents.

As in most cities, Brea council members--for the most part--vote with their commission appointees. In the tile case, only Councilman Marty Simonoff differed. But after visiting the site, Simonoff believed the color of the roof was less important than finishing construction.

Even members of the Olinda Village homeowners association were split over whether to write a letter in support of Shah. Most said they are anxious to see the project completed, even though nobody was fond of the roof’s color.

“It’s not the color we would like,” resident Diane Taylor said. “But that man has been through holy hell.”