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Home-size issue still too big to tackle
by Jerry Roberts
The latest big tuck for Manhattan Beach’s residential facelift was sent back to the doctors for more sculpting Tuesday when the notably divided council decided that the plan wasn’t ready for a proper coming-out presentation.
After a cursory run-through of a book-length report prepared by the city staff and the Planning Commission that sought mainly to provide more frontage for new homes and future renovations in the Tree and Hill sections east and north of arcing Ardmore Street, particularly on the structures’ second stories, the council voted 3-2 to send the issue back to the commision. Councilmen Steve Napolitano and Jim Aldinger were the dissenters who argued to adopt the amendments to the city’s municipal code to reduce the bulk and volume of homes.
"In the nine years I’ve been on this council, the biggest complaint I’ve heard in all my time is the bulk and volume issue," said Napolitano. He agreed with Aldinger that the six percent of open space determined by the commission was a fair percentage of any future and renovated homes to be taken from their insides and put outside, so to speak.
The public speaker who influenced the vote the most was Grant Kirkpatrick, the only architect on the Planning Commission. He said he was speaking as a citizen and architect and not as a member of the commission. He agreed to the six percent figure with his commission colleagues when that group was completing the report in recent weeks, he said. But then he changed his mind and told the council Tuesday that the percentage probably should be higher for the mostly bigger lots in the Hill Section, and lower for the mostly smaller lots in the Tree Section.
"I don’t believe there’s been enough study," Kirkpatrick said. "We need a couple months of focused groups and study sessions. It’ not a question of methodology. I think we’re on the right track. But I think we need another period of time to test."
One of the sticking points of the issue appears to be council opinions of good or acceptable architecture. Councilwoman Joyce Karlin Fahey expressed the notion that the homes in the Gaslamp Section in the northwest corner of town, which mostly have 11 percent open frontage, form "an architectural nightmare," while Napolitano reinforced the notion that the section "epitomizes the nature and character of Manhattan Beach."
In the 1980s, many homes were built or renovated in the city that sought to take advantage of all available lot space so that yards were reduced or eliminated and multi-car garages fronted right onto streets in an architectural development that was changing the city’s quaint nature by often giving homes a monolithic aspect. The council has sought to stem this sort of development, and the Tree and Hill sections code amendments were the latest steps.
Garage-size and basement-use issues as well as specifications for homes on block corners were also included in the Tuesday discussions. But those issues were put in limbo with the reverting of the six-percent frontage issue back to the commission. In the case of basements, the restrictions for their use and their requirement to be "entirely below grade" were to have been removed by the new plan, and these potential developments received the council’s verbal support.
Fahey’s concerns had to do with the reduction of backyard space that would occur with the addition of more front space and the placement of garages on the rears of lots, which Mayor Walt Dougher and other council members have advocated.
"Where are our kids supposed to play?" Fahey asked. "Why are we doing something just to make it look prettier when we drive by? That’s not a valid consideration. I’m opposed to this." She wanted to create "a blue-chip panel" of architects and contractors to advise the Planning Commission and expressed dismay that Kirkpatrick was the only professional expert on the commission. "It’s a treacherous path we’re going down," she said.
"The six percent of open space seems arbitrary," Councilwoman Linda Wilson said. "We’re trying to render decisions in all fairness. Grant [Kirkpatrick] is correct. There should be different percentages for different size lots."
Daniel A. Moreno, the city’s associate planner, and City Manager Geoff Dolan said that because of the intervening holidays and the advertisements necessary for further public meetings, the council might likely face the issue again in three to five months. ER