Anaheim’s Colony of Unhappy Neighbors

Tales from the Colony:

It’d be nice to report that all is well within the confines of Anaheim’s historic district. Alas, hurt feelings have hardened into anger, especially on North Pine Street, where a squabble rages that would confound people in many Orange County neighborhoods who make no pretense of living on a special block.

But Pam Chorbagian does. Hers is in the part of town that began as a vineyard and dates to Anaheim’s founding in 1857. But not everyone, she has discovered, shares her idea of what constitutes proper homage to the past.

Her antagonist is a local real estate broker, whose family has bought two adjoining lots across the street. The house on the corner lot has stood since the 1920s; the lot next to it has been vacant for years.

The buyers want to build a house there. That was OK with Chorbagian, until she saw that the plans call for a garage near the street, instead of toward the back.

The thought of sitting on her porch and staring across the street at a garage sickens her.

“I grew up here,” she says of Anaheim. “I waited 24 years to find a historical home. We bought this house nine years ago, and I love my house. I love my neighbors, and I love the historic district. I saw downtown torn down in 1972 and I never got over it. We have these little jewels dotting the city, especially in the Colony, and it’s just a slap in the face to let some big, fat developer who has more money than I could fight him with come in and take this away from us.”

What is he taking? “The historical integrity of the neighborhood,” she says. “He’s putting in something you’d find in Anywhere USA, a stucco, un-charming box of a house.”

Chorbagian has pleaded vainly with Gary Masciel to bring in an existing, older home or to make the garage less prominent.

Masciel, from a third-generation Anaheim family, has twice met with residents and passed muster with building codes. At least in manner, he doesn’t match Chorbagian’s passion. Rather, he talks of respecting differing opinions and not wanting to inflame the bad feelings he knows exist.

“Everyone has to look at other neighbors, whether they like it or not,” he says, without obvious rancor. “We all have to look at cars parked in the street, at garages, driveways, or people who don’t maintain their yards or paint their house the color we’d like to have it painted.”

Can he relate to the feelings of people living in a historical district? “We’re concerned with all of Anaheim,” he says of his family. “We were born and raised here and have basically seen redevelopment come in and do a lot of projects throughout the city that maybe we really don’t care for.”

However, he says, the house he envisions “will be a good one.” He says he’s not trying to upset Chorbagian, but adds, “I definitely feel sometimes people get a little caught up in their emotions and such.”

Chorbagian says she wants to stay cool but that her “objective in life right now” is to thwart Masciel’s plans. She’s talking about organizing a boycott of his brokerage.

So, the dispute simmers -- a culture clash between a property owner’s rights and those who make no apologies for trying to preserve history and a sense of place in a neighborhood that actually has it.

“What Gary wants to build, I’ve seen it. It’s ugly,” says Cynthia Ward, an Anaheim architectural historian and a resident on another block in the historic district. “It’s a garage with a house attached.

“Most houses there, the first thing you see is the porch. The homes are very welcoming. The front porch has a sense of place, of entry and welcoming. What Gary wants to build, the first thing you see is the garage, then the house. It’s not welcoming, not friendly.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at dana.parsons@latimes.com or at (714) 966-7821.