The Bell Curve -- Joseph N. Bell

For some years, a large part of my living came from chronicling the

political and social aberrations of Orange County for national magazines.

Then the aberrations either became less excessive or the nation moved

there with us, so newsworthy examples of our exotic lifestyle were harder

to come by. That’s why -- like Steve Cahn, who wrote about it in the

Pilot on Monday -- I leaped gratefully at “mansionization.”

While other, less blessed communities around the nation are struggling

to fill a growing need for low-cost housing, Newport Beach is trying to

figure out how to put a lid on high-cost housing. Meanwhile, we are

threatening to turn into a ghetto of mansions, many of them huddled

behind gates and security guards.

And the mansions are invading tract homes too. On the block I walk

around each day in my obstinately middle-class Santa Ana Heights

surroundings, someone has built a mansion that stands out like Shaq

O’Neal in a Boys’ Club game. If that can happen in my backyard, then no

neighborhood is safe.

Drive around Newport Beach and have a look for yourself. Modest homes

are coming down and bigger homes are going up. Then the bigger homes come

down and mansions go up. Now even bigger mansions are beginning to

follow. The best examples are in gated communities, but the virus is

spreading rapidly.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times Magazine titled “Living Ever

Larger” took a look at how this disease affects society on a broader

scale. It quoted a French anthropologist who has been analyzing the

American consumer for two decades as saying: “It’s a culture of excess, a

permanently nouveau riche mentality. We want the biggest, the most

extreme of everything.”

Robert Shelton says there are other reasons too. He is chairman of a

citizens’ advisory committee named by the Newport Beach City Council to

help identify critical issues for the council to consider in updating the

general plan. Mansionization is high on that list. But the motivations

Shelton’s committee is hearing for our incipient mansion ghettos go well

beyond mere ostentation.

The chief complaint brought up against mansionization is that it

changes the character of a neighborhood simply by its size. A three-story

home with an elevator on Balboa Island is as out of keeping with its

surroundings as the mini-mansion I pass every day in my walk. Other

complaints: such oversized homes block light and create a much denser

community.

Beyond just showing off existing wealth, the main motivation for

mansionizing appears to be the production of new wealth. Longtime

homeowners -- especially those on fixed incomes -- profit by upgrading

the site or creating income property by renting half of the new

structure. And contractors, who are understandably pushing this sort of

thing, profit from the remodels or from buying a property, tearing down

the house on it and filling up the lot with a mansion.

According to “Living Ever Larger,” while the size of the typical

American family has decreased by 20% during the past three decades,

typical new homes are 55% larger than the average home built in 1970.

Notes the anthropologist quoted earlier: “When do you have enough in

America? Never!”

But local residents upset by mansionization are now saying, “Enough.”

Which poses some problems for the people making the laws in Newport

Beach. The main device for controlling mansionization is adjusting the

ratio between the floor area and the size of the lot. Cutting it back

would eliminate a lot of the monsters now being crammed into small lots.

It would also offend those who regard property rights as sacrosanct.

The best solution, of course, is a combination of social awareness,

good taste and sensitivity to surroundings among the homeowners and

contractors who design and build these monsters. That pipe dream was

badly shaken the other night as I contemplated a million-dollar home

being wasted in order to build one several times as expensive on the same

lot. The existing home had just been bulldozed, along with much of its

contents. Stoves, refrigerators, washers, expensive landscaping and

interior appointments were cavalierly destroyed while gardeners, servants

and the wrecking crew -- any one of whom would have treasured these

possessions -- watched.

That kind of flaunting of wealth and insensitivity to those less

blessed should make it easier to tighten regulations on the ratio of

floor area to lot size in Newport Beach. The reluctance among political

conservatives to inject government into such private decisions is

selective. This would seem to be a time and place to use it.

Once reasonable limits have been put on mansionization, then maybe we

can turn to other urgent matters. Like affordable housing.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.