Despite rejection by a homeowners association, the commission approves an addition to a single-family home in Malibu West.
By Sylvie Belmond/Staff Writer
Planning commissioners dodged accusations of bias and ignored requests by an appellant who wanted two members recused from the decision-making process at Monday night’s meeting.
The commissioners ruled in favor of an applicant and against the appellant who disagreed on the merits of a second story addition to an existing home in Malibu West.
Planning Commissioners Ted Vaill and Ed Lipnick were asked to stay out of the discussion about the construction of a new 24-foot high, 1,752 square foot addition on El Sueno Drive because prior phone conversations with appellant Peter Burrell had become heated.
Burrell was so passionate about his case that he telephoned Vaill and Lipnick separately to plead his side. However, the commissioners felt the conversations became too out of hand and felt it prudent not to discuss it further on the phone.
“In four years on this commission, this was the first time I had to end a commission-related conversation on the phone,” said Lipnick.
Burrell was not alone in his accusations.
“I believe you’re painted,” said one of Burrell’s neighbors, who came to support him at the meeting.
But Vaill and Lipnick refused to recuse themselves.
The battle started a few months ago when the applicant, Robbin Hayne, proposed to build an addition to the home in a cul-de-sac on behalf of the owner, Brian McConnell.
The addition would make the single-family home significantly larger as the first floor would be expanded before the second floor was added. The downstairs expansion allowed for more square footage to be built upstairs but it still met the two-thirds guidelines set by the city for second-story homes. The guidelines state a second story can only be 67 percent the size of the first story.
When the applicant presented the project to the Malibu West Homeowners’ Association, it was rejected. Five representatives of the association voiced their concerns on Monday.
“This is a hideous structure. It does not fit into our community at all,” it was stated.
However, the city lives by a different set of rules and does not enforce HOA regulations.
Some commissioners suggested that Malibu West should consider an overlay district option that would give the HOA more clout in the decision-making process within the community. This option would allow HOA rules to be included the city planning process.
“I think it’s a little sad that the commission did not continue the item until the parties had a chance to work it out with the HOA,” said John Wall in a later interview. Wall attended the meeting because he wanted to hear for himself how the commissioners were dealing with the public in light of the accusations of bias.
“Before there was a commission in the city, the practice of the council was to get people to try to work things out among neighbors and that was wise,” noted Wall.
But in the end, the commission voted unanimously in favor of the applicant because the project met all city guidelines, despite the large size of the house.
“It’s a close call. This will be one of the larger homes in the area,” said commissioner David Fox in closing comments. “But this project meets the Interim Zoning Code.
“The most distasteful part of our job is getting between neighbors,” said Andrew Stern, commission chair, who supported the project.
In a later interview, Stern said, “The difficult issue (in this case) is neighborhood character. I’m troubled by the lack of definition. It’s hard to understand and apply.