A house fit for a Kings Road

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Jim Navai barely slept Tuesday night.

That evening, City Council members had finally given the green light

to his plans to expand his Kings Road home, putting an end to almost a

year of public hearings and meetings with city officials.

“That was one of the most emotional nights of my life,” the

semiretired landscape architect said Wednesday, sitting on a white sofa

in his living room, which commands ocean views far down the coast.

While the views from the bluffs overlooking Pacific Coast Highway have

turned Kings Road and adjacent streets into one of the city’s most

coveted places to live, its steep slopes have caused architects headaches

for years.

Navai’s property faced the same problems, with a part of his proposed

addition exceeding height limits by about 10 feet.

After an initial rejection in May, planning commissioners approved an

exemption from zoning codes, called a variance, for Navai’s plan Dec. 7

on the condition that he forego more than 9,000 additional square feet he

could have otherwise built.

A group of neighbors -- upset about recurring deviations from the code

-- didn’t care for Navai’s proposal. They asked Councilwoman Norma Glover

to take up the issue, even though they agree Navai’s house expansion

might be less intrusive than other options.

“It may be that this design is a better design,” Kurt Yeager told

council members at Tuesday’s meeting.

But approving the exemption would only encourage homeowners to bargain

with the city in the future and gamble for exemptions with a bulkier

alternative as a trump card in their hand, Yeager said.

“I think we’re going to make a bad process, if we’re going to

negotiate these things,” he said.

Glover, who sided with Yeager’s argument despite calling Navai’s plans

a good compromise, said Wednesday she plans to pay closer attention to

building activity from now on.

“There has been constant frustration by the Kings Road people on the

way the new homes have evolved over there,” she said. “Yes, variances are

allowed, and applicants will continue to seek them. But I’m trying to set

a new tone and, more than likely, I am going to appeal variances.”

Before the council approved Navai’s request, Glover and her colleagues

seemed at least confused and perplexed by the proceedings.

For one thing, some said they found it difficult to understand why

neighbors opposed the expansion when Navai could build an even bigger and

bulkier house without the city’s permission.

“The variance comes with a guarantee that this home will never get

bigger,” Mayor Gary Adams told opponents of Navai’s proposal. “You

understand that what you’re getting may be a lot less” than what Navai

could build?

While council members grappled with a decision between what some

described as a “fair, reasonable and good compromise” and the possibility

of Navai building a bigger addition, the technicalities of voting on the

issue also led to some misunderstandings.

When Glover turned to City Atty. Bob Burnham for help in wording her

motion to deny the variance, Burnham initially thought she wanted to

support Navai’s plan and told her how to go about it.

Then, after Adams joined ranks with Glover and a rejection of Navai’s

plan seemed within reach, Councilman Tod Ridgeway entered the discussion

with a strongly worded appeal.

“Mr. Navai has agreed to extraordinary conditions that I wouldn’t

agree to,” Ridgeway said, adding that he saw the project as a good

compromise. “I won’t go against my conscience. I will not support the

motion. This man has been dragged through the process for over a year.”

Things took a different turn after Councilman John Heffernan sided

with Ridgeway and Councilmen Steve Bromberg and Gary Proctor to reject

Glover’s motion. A vote to approve the plan passed with five votes after

Councilman Dennis O’Neil chose to go along.

Back at his Kings Road home, where two laminated public hearing

notices in the frontyard still bore witness to Tuesday’s events, Navai

said he’d do the whole thing all over again despite the difficulties.

“This is one dream I worked for 30 years to get,” he said. “What is

life if you don’t pursue your happiness? And this makes me happy.”