Get The Ink Out:

Imagine you’ve picked the perfect spot for your retirement home. Maybe you’ve been dreaming about it for years, designing it in your head, planning where to put that craft room, or just how big you want your new spa tub to be.

You’re so serious about this retirement home, you’ve already bought the lot.

Now, imagine someone else is saying you absolutely cannot, no way, no how, build your home because you will obstruct a park’s ocean views.

That’s what Kim Megonigal and his wife have gone through. They bought a lot adjacent to Begonia Park 13 years ago. Tuesday night the Newport Beach City Council gave them approval to build their 3,500-square-foot, three-story home overlooking the ocean.

Over the years, as designs for their retirement home have wended their way through various boards and commissions, the couple have scaled down the size by 1,000 square feet to appease the Friends of Begonia Park, which formed to protect the park’s ocean views, which, the Friends said, would be halved because of the garage.

The Friends argue that the city’s general plan protects the public view.

Their ideal solution is to have the garage moved down to Bayside Drive. Unfortunately, the city engineer said it wouldn’t be safe because the street is busy.

Added to the time wasted, Megonigal “paid a $35,000 deposit on an environmental study when a biologist hired by Friends of Begonia Park found the lot might be home to a rare, species of protected plant,” as Brianna Bailey reported in Wednesday’s article “Lot owner wins years-long battle.”

That seems like an awful lot of money to spend before you’ve even started building. And if the Friends felt this flower ought to be protected, shouldn’t they have paid for the study?

Residents must protect their rights, but at what point is it OK for them to encroach on someone else’s? The Megonigals owned the property, which many thought was simply part of Begonia Park, according to the Megonigals’ architect, David Olsen.

Kenneth Jaggers of the Friends says he knows at least one person is filing an appeal to the California Coastal Commission. So the battle may continue if the commission takes up the appeal, but I hope it comes up in the Megonigals’ favor.

While researching this story, I came across this little gem: “Last year [Megonigal] put up the fence and installed security cameras. One of his future neighbors had threatened to plant an endangered species of a flowering plant on the lot in order to halt construction” (“Dreams vs. park views,” Sept. 30).

I’m almost surprised the Megonigals still want to move into a neighborhood that contains so many spiteful people.

But maybe it’s become a point of pride, at this point. Or maybe that home they’ve been dreaming about for the last 13 years is really worth it.

JAMIE ROWE is a copy editor for the Daily Pilot. She may be reached at (714) 966-4634 or jamie.rowe@latimes.com. Squee says he is with Coco all the way.