Another Schrocking in the name of harmony

There’s been another Schrocking in Costa Mesa. Dozens witnessed

it. Even the cops stood by and watched it unfold. So did the members

-- in unanimous fashion -- of the Costa Mesa City Council. Every last

one of them sat in council chambers Monday like knots on logs as the

evangelists of Harmony and Compatibility poured honey on the heads of

Aviemore Terrace homeowner John Clark and his wife, then buried them

up to their necks in a colony of fire ants.

Now a Schrocking is what, exactly? It’s my term, coined earlier

this year in the wake of the bureaucratic flogging and relentless

hounding inflicted on one Michael Schrock by the city and some of his

fellow residents on Cecil Place. Schrock, by way of some brief

history, was the poor chap who deigned to exercise certain rights of

ownership over his 18,000-square-foot lot.

At first, city planners told the landscape architect and his wife

that his plans to add two single-family homes behind his existing

residence would be OK. But they changed their minds when residents

from Cecil Place and other nearby streets began beating the war

drums. Schrock’s plan, went the chants of protest, were not

“harmonious and compatible” with the surrounding neighborhood.

And so Schrock’s pathetic carcass was staked to the desert floor

and picked clean. He was Schrocked. Lifted of his most fundamental

right to build on his property. Which is why in a March 13 column

tracing Schrock’s macabre tale, property owners in this town were

warned to “sell it if you can. Take a loss if you must. But whatever

you do, get out. They may be coming for you next.”

John Clark -- our latest Schrocking victim -- wasn’t listening.

Here’s some quick background on this latest mugging.

Clark’s residence is among a handful of rather lovely homes

dotting the bluffs in the city’s Marina Highlands neighborhood. The

terraced community features mostly single-story homes overlooking the

Santa Ana River Channel out to the Huntington Beach shoreline. And so

the views are pretty nice.

Now the claws came out, the hissing began, and the fur started

flying when Clark revealed plans to tack a second story onto his

residence. Such an addition requires what’s called a minor design

review by Costa Mesa Zoning Administrator Perry Valantine, who

approved the addition. Not only did Clark’s second story fit well

within the city’s height limits, it was deemed by Valantine to be

“harmonious and compatible” with the surrounding neighborhood.

Even the Costa Mesa Planning Commission twice approved Clark’s

home-improvement plan.

But at least seven Marina Highlands homeowners pitched an awful

and shrill fit, claiming Clark’s home addition would either

obliterate or partially mask their ocean and city-light views. That,

they say, not only violates certain harmony and compatibility edicts

found in city zoning and development codes, it tramples over the

community association’s CC&Rs; (covenants, conditions and

restrictions). Those mandate, in part, “harmony of external design

with existing structures.”

To the dismay of the Clarks -- and pretty much anyone turned off

by the specter of busybodies and club-wielding government agencies

nosing around where property rights are concerned -- the City Council

on a 5-0 vote poked them in the eye and said, “No.”

Two things come to mind in the wake of this Schrocking. The first

is the tortured rationale of Clark’s opponents. Clearly, the affected

homeowners sought to torpedo Clark’s second-story addition in order

to protect their ocean views. Except that nothing in city law nor the

Marina Highlands’ own CC&Rs; recognize a homeowner’s right to a view.

Now knowing the view argument to be a legal non-starter, the

Schrockers lobbied against the project in that murky ether known as

“harmony and compatibility.” Anyone care to define what that means?

And so now the whole thing is destined to touch down in a

courtroom (Clark versus the city of Costa Mesa), which bleeds the

taxpayers and pleases attorneys but hardly anyone else. All of which

should hit you smack in the forehead with this irony: The city’s

running obsession with harmony and compatibility has produced little,

if any, of either.

And there is this odd twist too. City Hall -- which houses the

very folks who have hatched new regulations banning such things as

chain-link fences, peeling paint and incompatible designs -- is

itself ringed by a chain-link barrier. Has been for months. The bulky

and awkward steel beams recently tacked to the building’s exterior to

keep the place upright in the event of a good temblor are only

partially painted. Construction debris has been left in the frontyard

and the grass is dying. And why? Because the contractor the city

selected turned out to be a top-shelf dud.

Oh well. At least the generals on the top floor still have their

views.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a freelance writer and communications

consultant. He lives in Costa Mesa. Readers can reach him with news

tips and comments via e-mail at [email protected].