Neighbors Go to Court to Try to Save Landmark House

Neighbors of the historic China House in Corona del Mar are gearing for a final battle--this one in court--to prevent demolition of the pagoda-style home.

After unsuccessful appeals to the California Coastal Commission and Newport Beach City Hall, two neighbors have filed suit in Superior Court seeking an environmental impact report before the wrecking ball swings.

Gerald Thompson, who with his wife Kathleen, has lived next to the China House for 24 years, said the suit is a last-ditch effort to save the pink and green home that has been a navigational landmark and architectural novelty since 1930.

The China House on Shell Street and an adjoining lot were purchased in 1986 for an estimated $1.5 million by Jim and Martha Beauchamp and Ernest and Donna Schroeder, all of Corona del Mar. The Beauchamps plan to build a Cape-Cod style house, and the Schroeders a country French house.

The three-story China House, the couples have said, is architecturally dysfunctional. Each floor of the home and the upper bedrooms, for example, are accessible only through outside staircases.

After months of opposition from Thompson and other residents, the couples received approval late last year from the Newport Beach City Council and the Coastal Commission to demolish the China House and build their two million-dollar homes.

Their architect, Brion Jeanette, said both agencies are reviewing the final plans, and construction could begin as early as June.

But not if two neighbors win their suit, in which they allege that the planned underground garages of the new houses would severely damage the foundations under their own homes.

Thompson said that if water is removed from the sandy lot where the Schroeder’s have planned their underground garage five feet from his home, it could endanger the stability of a bulkhead that serves as the foundation of his house.

Tom Thomson, the lawsuit’s second plaintiff, said he is worried about his parents’ home, immediately north of the China House. Both homes sit on the same bedrock, where the Beauchamps plan to carve out an underground garage.

“There’s a tremendous potential for problems with tearing out that bedrock,” Thomson said. When his parents’ home was built about nine years ago, the house was constructed to the natural contour of the ocean rocks because of the difficulty and expense of removing them, he said.

A court hearing on the suit is scheduled May 13, but City Atty. Robert Burnham has asked for a postponement.

“If we do force them to come up with an environmental impact report, that negates everything with the Coastal Commission, and they have to start from square one,” Thompson said.

Study Unnecessary

But Burnham contends an environmental study is unnecessary. “Based on the initial study, the Planning Department staff felt there was no significant adverse effect on the environment,” he said.

The Planning Department undertook a limited environmental study in December when the Schroeders requested an exemption from city height regulations for their custom-built home, said environmental coordinator Patricia Temple. No study was done for the Beauchamp project because the plans did not conflict with any city ordinance, she said.

To the Schroeders, the lawsuit is merely a “delaying tactic” by neighbors who “just don’t want anybody living next door to them,” Ernest Schroeder said.

“They brought up issues that aren’t even issues,” Donna Schroeder said. “Environmental impact reports are usually done for major projects, not for building homes.”

She said she believes that the lawsuit will amount to little. “We have to hire the professionals to tell us if it can or can’t be done,” she said. “But it’s not for Mr. Thompson to decide.”

Offered to Sell House

The Beauchamps could not be reached for comment.

The Schroeders and the Beauchamps have offered to sell the China House structure to the city and to various historical societies, but no one has been interested, Ernest Schroeder said.

He said his wife had even suggested that the house’s swooping roof be removed and used as a gazebo on a strip of land across the harbor entrance. “We would still love to have a portion of the house used,” he said. “I’d hate to see it put in the trash can.”

Despite the conflict, the Schroeders said they will continue their plans now that they have spent thousands of dollars on the project.

“We feel obligated to move ahead,” Donna Schroeder said. “The question is whether to build and live there or build and sell. . . . It is very difficult to imagine yourself and your family living next door to someone so vehemently opposed to what you are doing.”