Alicia RobinsonNot so long ago, you could...

Alicia Robinson

Not so long ago, you could walk down any street along the coast and

find beach cottages built in the 1940s or earlier, even as far back

as the late 1800s.

Today they’re becoming a rare breed.

Some purists might consider those older beach cottages cozy and

cute, with their one-story wood construction, small square footage,

one or two bedrooms and fireplaces.

But others have found the same houses cramped and inconvenient, so

they’ve torn down the cottages and replaced them with homes that are

bigger, taller and have more of everything.

This change from cottages to more modern, larger homes is

particularly evident on Balboa Island, said Newport Beach City

Councilman Steve Bromberg, who has lived there for 17 years. And at times controversy has erupted among those who want to rebuild and

neighbors who say the island should keep its ties to the past.

“Balboa Island is a unique, charming place and I’m really

concerned that gradually it’s being destroyed,” said Lyle Dawn, who

bought his 1930s beach cottage on Apolena Avenue five years ago.

Dawn restored his one-story home, adding hardwood floors to the

kitchen and back bedroom and rebuilding the fireplace to its original

design. The older cottages have a timeless beauty that will still be

attractive when the homes being built today look dated, Dawn said.

He chose to redo his house as it looked when it was built because

he wanted to retain that charm, he said.

But as property values have gone up and people have demanded more

living space, the look of the island has been compromised by houses

that dwarf their neighbors, Dawn said.

CHANGING STYLES

In the three decades that Newport Beach Planning Director Patricia

Temple has worked for the city, she’s seen the architecture change,

particularly in Corona del Mar and Balboa Island.

“The style of what’s being built is almost never what I would call

kind of the cottage influence,” Temple said. “It’s usually more

upscale.”

People used to want private green space -- the house would be at

the front of the lot with a backyard or garden behind and sometimes a

detached garage at the back of the lot. But now, Temple said, they’ll

opt for a deck instead of a yard and build their house as close to

the edges of the lot as city building codes allow.

“They want every square inch of available floor area and every

square inch of available height within our codes,” she said.

“They want them as big as they can get.”

Diminutive size and aged electrical wiring in Del Chesebro’s Park

Avenue beach cottage led to his decision to rebuild.

“Basically we were looking to live on the island and looking for a

place that would be desirable,” Chesebro said.

What he found was a 600-square-foot lot with no garage. Built in

1921, the house was on cinderblocks and had one bedroom and one

bathroom hardly big enough to turn around in.

“My wife and I decided that was not exactly what we wanted to live

in,” he said. “Besides being a fire hazard, it was extremely small.”

So Chesebro, a builder, drew plans to replace the cottage with a

three story house with three bedrooms and two decks. He showed

neighbors his plans, but they found it hard to visualize the new

house from the drawings.

“Everybody was upset with me when I tore it down,” he said. “Once

I built the house, everybody loved the house.”

DONE WITH THE VACATION

The transition from petite to palatial began in the 1980s, said

Bromberg, who is Chesebro’s neighbor.

“For many years [Newport Beach] was a sleepy beach town,” he said.

“It was always a vacation spot for the rich and famous.”

That’s why the cottages were so small, Bromberg said. They were

vacation homes, so people only used them a few times a year and

expected to come in dripping wet and with sandy feet.

In the mid-1970s, people started using their beach houses year

round, so they wanted a little more room, he said.

Two-story houses sprang up around town, and in the mid-1990s

“architects became very creative” and figured out how to get

three-story homes in under the maximum allowed height, Bromberg said.

This caused strife with neighbors who had kept their cottages.

They felt the “mansionization” of nearby houses was taking up their

air and light, he said.

About a year and a half ago, the controversy over larger buildings

became a public issue when someone on Balboa Island sent out an

official-looking survey that appeared to be from the city. Bromberg

said the survey asked residents a handful of questions about whether

they favored three story homes, if they thought the maximum roof

height should be lowered, whether construction was getting out of

hand, and so on.

About 350 surveys were returned, and Bromberg found the results

interesting. While many people said they liked the cottage

atmosphere, they also noted the community had changed.

“The same people who did not want to see three stories were

saying, ‘Please don’t interfere with our property rights. It’s for us

to build what we want as long as we’re doing it within the code,’” he

said.

The question of whether to rebuild comes down to its effect on the

community. Bromberg and Temple both said it does change things. But

people aren’t usually worried about the loss of the homes themselves,

Temple said.

And while Bromberg said he’s concerned about losing the

community’s history, he’s in favor of property owners’ rights.

“It does change the character of the community,” he said.

“However, if it’s done tastefully, just because it’s bigger doesn’t

mean it’s bad.”

Chesebro said people on the island aren’t against any building --

they just want to see something appropriate for the island.

“The residents are really behind anyone that’s going to build a

home that’s an asset to the island,” he said. “The problem is getting

them to understand that it’s an asset before it’s built.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].