All but one Goetz home will stand

June Casagrande

Nearly three dozen homes that slightly exceed zoning height limits

because architect Andrew Goetz submitted incorrect plans will be

allowed to stand as is. But builders of one home won’t be as lucky.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a “special circumstances

variance” for most clients of the architect who was arrested in

October on forgery and fraud charges. City officials charge that

Goetz submitted wrong survey data that allowed him to design homes

slightly taller than zoning codes allow.

After the arrest, the city issued an emergency stop-work order on

six Goetz-designed homes under construction. In the interim, they

considered what could be done to help the homeowners and also

surveyed about 26 other Goetz-designed homes that were already

completed.

The solution city officials came up with was a 5% rule: allowing

Goetz’s clients to complete work on their homes as long as they are

no more than 5% higher than zoning codes would normally allow.

Of the six houses under construction, five met the 5% criteria. A

home now under construction at 202 Fernleaf Ave. does not. An

attorney for homeowners Susan and James Hart said that the family was

willing to redesign the three-story the home to within 5% of the

zoning guidelines, but argued that to comply with the stricter zoning

guidelines would mean a substantial and expensive redesign of the

home.

“All we’re asking is to be included in the 5% de minimis rule,”

said Bill Hart, an attorney representing his brother and

sister-in-law.

Neighbors of the Fernleaf Avenue property pleaded with city

officials to enforce the stricter design guidelines.

“It’s wrong for the city to allow someone to illegally profit from

something destructive to others,” Corona del Mar resident Robert

Watley said. “Please do the right thing for the real victims of 202

Fernleaf.”

The council agreed, unanimously approving the plan that would

except all the homes except the Harts’. The council also added a

provision that the exception applies only to homeowners willing to

sign an affidavit swearing that they had no knowledge that their

architect was breaking the rules.

“This really was a question of where to draw the line,” Mayor

Steve Bromberg said. “They were asking to be an exception to the

exception, and we had to draw the line.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at june.casagrande@

latimes.com.