TUSTIN : Council Lets Tenants Move Into Complex

Angering neighbors of a controversial 2 1/2-story apartment building, the City Council voted Monday night to allow tenants to move in despite the city’s failure to notify area residents when the project was initially approved.

Councilman Jim Potts, the lone dissenter in the 3-1 vote, said he thought that the project, on Pasadena Avenue, was “detrimental to the general comfort and welfare of neighbors.”

Neighbors complained that the apartments overshadowed their homes, robbed them of privacy and lowered their property values.

Other council members said that approving the occupancy permit was not an easy decision but that they felt that all issues had been addressed.

“What we approved originally is something I can support. We should move forward,” Councilwoman Leslie Anne Pontious said.

Although the apartments have been ready for occupancy for months, battles in court and in council chambers left the project in limbo.

The problem started last spring after city staff members discovered that neighbors on Myrtle and Corla avenues, behind the 11-unit complex, had never been told about the 1989 hearing at which a construction permit was issued.

City officials declared the permit invalid, and the council reconsidered the apartments.

After several emotional hearings and unsuccessful, council-mandated negotiations between the neighbors and the developer, the council came up with what it considered to be a compromise.

By a 3-2 vote, the council issued a conditional use permit for the complex but ordered developer Feridoun Rezai to remove the top floor from the four rear units.

That decision left both Rezai and the neighbors unhappy, and both sides filed lawsuits.

Last December, as a result of the suit filed by the neighbors, a Superior Court judge overturned the council’s decision and ordered the council to reconsider the permit based on how shade and shadows caused by the apartments would affect property values.

Monday’s council vote followed a public hearing in which the shade and shadows issue was discussed.

Despite the council’s decision, Rezai is still pursuing his lawsuit against the city. He is seeking $1 million in punitive damages, compensation for lost income, reduced property value, additional construction, demolition costs and fees.