Your Nov. 29 article, "Council calls design review overbearing,"
stated; "City Council members have accused a city design review board
of overstepping its authority and ruling with too heavy a fist." As a
member of the Design Review Board, I was somewhat baffled by these
inflammatory accusations to the board.
A homeowner spoke during the Nov. 26 council meeting, saying the
Design Review Board has intimidated him and, contrary to his wishes,
chose the color of his house on 2325 Bonita Dr. I was on the board
during the case, and my recollection of the deliberation of the board
was the opposite. The record video of the Oct. 24 Design Review Board
meeting reflects the following:
The architect, representing the owner, stated at the meeting, "we
have no objection to looking at alternate colors for the exterior
stucco."
The chair recommended that the board table the project to give the
architect time to make the color selection with his client. The
architect asked to continue with the process of color selection
without taking a break. The video shows Mr. Kevorkian and his
architect selecting a color from the stucco color palette.
The video shows that the Design Review Board made a concerted
effort to arrive at a mutual agreement with the owner and his
architect to expedite approval of the project.
As to ruling with too heavy a fist and overstepping its authority:
The main concern of the board was the compatibility of the roof
revision to the house and neighborhood. The house is in Verdugo
Woodlands West, an area distinguished by old homes that reflect
strong and original architectural styles. The massing and roof lines
on the subject property reflect a ranch-style house, with covered
porch and fluted wood columns outlining the porch.
The original roof was shingles (more than 80% of the houses in the
neighborhood have shingles), but during construction, the owner
decided to change the roof to Spanish tiles, and the board was
concerned that the Spanish tiles were not compatible with the
ranch-style house or the neighborhood.
The owner informed the board members that he had ordered the roof
tiles before he came to the board. The board advised the owner to
consider asphalt shingles or a roof tile with a flat profile, which
would be more compatible with the house and the neighborhood. When
the owner refused to consider that, the board advised the owner to
consider a stucco color that blends well with the color of the
selected roof tile. That takes us to the proceeding of the Oct. 24
meeting, above.
