City settles lawsuit over Samoa house

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- The city settled a yearlong dispute with a homeowner

Wednesday over what makes an attic an attic.

The city will pay Tracy Stevenson $260,000 to taper the roof on her Samoa

Place home. The change should help clear up any attic/third-floor

ambiguity because a flat roof, which Stevenson planned, makes an attic a

third story, an assistant city attorney said.

In 1998, Stevenson began adding a third story to her Mesa Verde home

until city officials, saying homes there cannot have a three floors,

ordered her to stop.

Stevenson said and maintains she was building an attic that does indeed

conform to city codes. She alleged in the lawsuit that the council’s

decision was unfair because city planners, after reviewing her

blueprints, granted her building permits for the renovations,

understanding it was an attic.

She did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

Stevenson must also move the front of her house back a few feet to adhere

to the neighborhood’s mandatory 20-foot front yard, according to the

settlement.

“The amount does not come close to allowing her to finish the house,”

said Jennifer Friend, Stevenson’s attorney. Stevenson originally sued the

city for $520,000, but instead settled out of court. “This process has

put such a financial and emotional strain on her.”

A Mesa Verde homeowner who led a coalition of neighbors in opposition to

Stevenson’s remodeling, said she is glad the issue is finally resolved.

“This is a long, long lesson for the neighbors,” said Robin Leffler. “In

the future, they may look twice before doing something incompatible with

the neighborhood.”

Assistant City Atty. Thomas Nixon said the money would go toward

preserving the neighborhood’s character.

“Residents can know that Mesa Verde will feel the benefit of the money,”

he said.

Friend said her client, however, would not.

“She had to give up her dream home to go on with her life,” she said.