Quest for a Castle : Showdown Waits in Wings Over Plans for Peninsula Mansion

Jan Napolitan, a planning commissioner in Palos Verdes Estates, says she would be the first to agree that everyone deserves to have a decent roof over their head.

But does a family of seven (10 if you count the hired help) really need a 30,000-square-foot home with 16 toilets (20 if you count the pool house and servants’ quarters)?

Napolitan doesn’t think so.

“Thirty thousand square feet is not a basic need,” she says. “It is a basic want.”

Tongues are wagging, and a showdown appears to be brewing at City Hall over plans by wealthy businessman Tei-Fu Chen to build such a house on a bluff in Palos Verdes Estates. If Chen obtains city approval--a public hearing on the project is scheduled for Tuesday--the house would be by far the biggest ever built in the community.

Chen, following in the heavily trodden path of other well-heeled Southern Californians, says he wants to start from scratch and build a home comfortable enough for his wife and five young children.

To do that, Chen says he is prepared to tear down the existing, 6,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion already on the property. The six-bedroom house was once owned by former fitness queen Gloria Marshall and is still referred to by some locals as “Gloria’s house.”

“I am a dreamer,” said Chen, who owns a Torrance-based health and beauty products company and who paid $4.3 million for the property on Via Visalia in June. “This is our dream home.”

Some city officials and residents, however, contend that Chen’s dream would be more akin to a nightmare for the community. In a city that prides itself on maintaining abundant open space and a rural ambience, a 30,000-square-foot home simply has no place, they contend.

“I don’t believe we should have homes of this size in our community,” said Mayor Ruth Gralow, a council member for five years and, before that, a planning commissioner.

“I have been serving this city for 10 years, and one of the reasons I have put in the time I have is because I want to see the place preserved.”

As in other Southern California cities where property values are soaring, most notably Beverly Hills and other Westside neighborhoods, the issue of larger homes replacing smaller ones has been hotly debated in Palos Verdes Estates in recent years.

Some residents are still sniffing over the construction several years ago of a sprawling estate on Via Visalia that happens to be next door to the Chen property. The 15,072-square-foot home, which resembles a European manor house, has been nicknamed the “Visalia Sheraton” by neighbors.

To control the size of new homes and additions to existing ones, council members last year passed a law forbidding anyone to build a home that would cover more than 30% of the lot plus 1,000 square feet. Gralow in early October tried to go a step further and outlaw the construction of any new house in the city larger than 15,000 square feet, but she couldn’t muster enough support among her council colleagues.

At about the same time the 30% rule was adopted, the council also approved a “neighborhood compatibility” ordinance requiring new or remodeled structures to be compatible with existing homes in terms of square footage and design. The ordinance also calls for building proposals to consider how the neighbors’ views and privacy would be affected.

City officials concede that Chen’s proposed house easily conforms to the 30% rule because it would cover less than 18% of the 2.3-acre lot it would sit on. Indeed, Chen himself says he believes his proposed structure is “quite a small house” given the lot size.

But whether it conforms to the compatibility ordinance appears to be a debatable issue, and one that probably will be decided by the City Council, which must approve all building proposals. Although Chen’s home would be at least 30% larger than any other home in the area, the lot it would sit on is far larger than any other.

Such facts don’t sway Napolitan.

“I don’t think when the city was planned and the lots were planned that anyone ever thought a 30,000-square-foot building would be planted on one,” she said.

Chen’s architect, George Shaw, contended that the proposed house meets all the criteria outlined in the compatibility ordinance. None of the neighbors’ views will be obstructed, and the house itself will be largely concealed by the existing landscaping.

“Everyone who has had the opportunity to have the project explained to them sees it is meeting the criteria of neighborhood compatibility and is not out of line,” said Shaw, who has talked to residents about his client’s house at previous public hearings.

Nan Harman, who with her husband, Reed, recently built a home next to Chen’s property, said her neighbors are “mostly uncomfortable” with the idea of such a large house being built in the area.

Although Harman said she would prefer not to see such a big home built, she said she is confident it would be done tastefully and have a minimal impact on the area. She wouldn’t divulge the size of her home but said it’s less than 12,000 square feet.

Linda Arkenberg, who lives on the street where the Chen house is planned, said as long as Chen obeys the city’s building codes, no one should prevent him from building the house.

“As far as I am concerned, it is going to be off by itself in a secluded area with other large homes,” she said.

Chen, who moved to this country about 15 years ago from Taiwan, said he is puzzled by all the fuss his dream house has caused. Explaining why he wants such a large home, he said different people have different tastes and different ways of living.

After all, he says, that’s what this country is all about.

“Everybody has the freedom to live the way they want to live.”