Politics & Government
UPDATED: Controversial House May Grow 3,400 Square Feet
Residents of Pacific San Juan believe the landowner "deceived" the city. The original 4,100-square-foot plan now calls for 7,500 square feet.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to include comments from Dr. Arsalan Darmal.
A controversial proposal for a large home on a prominent ocean bluff has gotten even larger, angering residents in the nearby Pacifica San Juan tract.
“The City Council gave [the landowner] an inch, and he has taken a mile,” said resident Paul Jenkinson.
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In May, an earlier .
The council’s decision allowed the .60-acre property along the west side of Avenida California to be rezoned so that Ladera Ranch resident may build what he called his dream house there.
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At the time, Darmal’s dream house was proposed to be 4,096 square feet, two stories tall, with a basement and very modern in design.
Now that the house is going through the planning process, Darmal has changed it to about 7,500 feet, said Development Services Director Grant Taylor.
That’s got residents of Pacifica San Juan up in arms. Several appeared before the Planning Commission Tuesday to complain.
“That’s a 50 percent increase in square feet. That’s a 50 percent increase in massing,” Jenkinson said. “I hope the council feels uncomfortable and perhaps a little bit deceived.”
Darmal said he considers his house, as now proposed, to be "relatively very, very small."
"It's like a 1,500 square-foot-home on a 5,000-square-foot lot. It's the same ratio," Darmal said. His lot is 26,000. "They should be happy I'm not building a 12,000-square-foot home."
That's not exactly how resident Marisa Hanke sees it.
The new dimensions for the proposed house bring it too close to property lot lines and Avenida California, Hanke said. All the rest of the nearby homes have to be 20 feet back from the street. So that makes the proposed house out of character with the rest of neighborhood and unsafe.
Another complaint is that the house would block views of the ocean.
Darmal said there are a handful of future neighbors from the Pacifica San Juan community who would not be happy with any development of his property.
Taylor said the house will go through the normal screening process, and that it’s “premature” for residents to get riled up.
“It’s just the start,” he said.
