Planners test new zone rules

Lolita Harper

The first test of the city’s new zoning requirements was a

success, planning commissioners said Monday as they denied plans to

build five houses on a large Eastside lot.

The commissioners unanimously turned down the owner of 258 Santa

Isabel Ave., spurning his request to deviate from the city’s new

lot-size requirements and obtain a “planned development residential”

zoning designation, which generally allows for more lenience in an

effort to encourage creative projects.

This kind of change was exactly what the city was trying to

prevent when it tightened zoning requirements, they said.

Owner Farhad Khosravi asked for the zoning change so he could

build five detached, two-story homes on his half-acre lot. On July 1,

the City Council approved zoning changes that mandate a lot be at

least an acre before it is considered for the planned development

designation.

“The problems with this proposed project provide a good reason for

why a one-acre lot size is required,” Commissioner Eleanor Egan said.

“The purpose of the specific zoning is to provide for something

special on the property. I don’t see anything special here. I don’t

see any common recreation area. I see no extraordinary landscaping.

All I see is the shoehorning of large units, and that is not the

purpose of [planned development residential] zoning.”

Developers who don’t meet the required specifications may qualify

for a variance but only in special circumstances, such as unusual

shape or size of a lot, according to a staff report.

Planner Mel Lee said the Santa Isabel Avenue property did not

qualify as a special circumstance. In addition to not meeting the

one-acre requirement, the individual portions of the project were

well below the minimum square-footage requirements. The city requires

a minimum of 5,000 square feet for small lot divisions. The owner is

proposing parcels as small as 3,410 square feet.

Khosravi defended his project, saying it encompassed award-winning

architectural design and would enhance the entire community. He also

challenged city planners’ math, saying a different formula was used

to calculate lot sizes in a similar neighborhood project called La

Mesa.

After about 20 minutes of wrestling with the numbers -- in which

planners and commissioners could be seen scratching out computations

on pieces of paper -- Planning Commissioner Bruce Garlich asked Lee

point blank: “Do you stand by your numbers?”

“I am confident that the numbers are correct,” Lee said.

Khosravi said he simply wanted the same consideration that was

given to previous developers in the area -- specifically the La Mesa

development.

His logic was lost on residents and planning commissioners who

argued that it was the proliferation of previous multi-unit

developments in areas surrounded mostly by single-family homes that

spurred the recent zoning requirements.

“La Mesa is an example of what the city is moving away from on the

Eastside,” Planning Commission Chairwoman Katrina Foley said.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at [email protected].