Condo squabble not violent but heated

Dave Brooks

Angry residents waylaid City Council members after their meeting

Tuesday night to chastise them for approving a law that will charge

them as much as $30,000 to clear the titles on their illegally

converted condominiums.

Most council members hurried away as the small mob honed in on

Councilwomen Connie Boardman and Debbie Cook. Boardman also took off,

but Cook stayed and responded to irate homeowners.

The loud display might not have won any points with council

members, but it did catch the attention of one city employee -- the

meeting’s sergeant-at-arms who called in reinforcement from the

Huntington Beach Police Department in case the exchange got out of

hand.

The confrontation was quickly diffused without any police

intervention, but it underscores the increasing frustration of about

120 Huntington Beach residents who unknowingly bought illegally

converted condominiums.

“How could they do this to us?” Renee Tarnow said. “We’re the

victims in this. We shouldn’t have to pay a thing.”

Owners have had difficulty trying to sell or refinance illegally

converted condominiums, and because of parking and landscaping

requirements under a strict 20-year-old ordinance, they are difficult

to rezone.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council approved a special process for

rezoning the condominiums, which included a fee to deal with

affordable housing.

“The illegal conversions created a loss of the city’s rental

housing stock,” Cook said, so condo owners will have to pay as much

as $20,000 apiece into a special affordable-housing fund to make up

for it.

The final figure for the fee is being calculated by a consulting

firm.

“The difficulty of this situation is trying to craft a solution

that is global in nature,” Planning Director Howard Zelefsky said.

Condo owners Tim and Laurel Talbert said the affordable-housing

fee, on top of the nearly $10,000 in processing costs they could have

to pay, is simply unaffordable.

“I was seriously hoping for them to waive the whole thing,” Laurel

Talbert said. “I don’t see why we should have to pay any of this.”

Tuesday’s decision was a slightly watered-down version of the

original ordinance introduced by the Planning Department.

Councilwoman Jill Hardy asked staff members to devise an

alternative to an expensive parcel-mapping component of the plan,

which could take months to complete.

The council also directed staff members to draft an ordinance that

would require the collection of various fees only after the property

was sold.

“Typically, when someone sells their home, they come into a

surplus of cash,” Boardman said. “This provision makes paying the

[affordable-housing] fee much more affordable.”

Mike Adams, a consultant from Stewart Title, the company that

insured most of the improper titles, suggested his company may issue

a bond to cover all costs until the problem is resolved.

But condo owners, like Aaron Frankel, said they’re frustrated that

the city is asking them to pay anything at all. Frankel wants the

city to file a class-action lawsuit against the people who illegally

converted the homes and go after the Realtors. He added that the only

time he was hopeful during the entire meeting was when Councilman Gil

Coerper made a failing motion to waive the affordable-housing fee

altogether.

“That was pretty cool,” he said. “I finally felt like someone was

listening to us.”