Monster Mansions Get the Heave-Ho From City Council

Carolanne Sudderth

Mirror Staff Writer

   Monster mansions are out. Tuesday night, the Santa Monica City Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance limiting the size of new homes being built north of Montana. 
   Twenty-five speakers, including members of the North of Montana Association (NOMA) and several architects, addressed the council, NOMA members took a strong pro-ordinance stance, as did some architects, while others questioned the ordinance’s provisions, particularly those regarding side yard set-backs.
   About a year ago, members of NOMA appeared before the Council to describe what they saw as increasing over-development in their neighborhood, specifically large houses with very little set back being built on lots that had previously held homes of amore modest size, aka “monster mansions.”
   “The monster mansions were encroaching in the neighborhood and changing the ambience,” Doris Sosin, president of NOMA, said. 
The Council passed an interim ordinance temporarily limiting development north of Montana and put together a working group composed of residents, architects, developers, and city staff members to create a more permanent measure.
   “This was a community effort,” Sosin said. “We really worked hard and we really did our homework and maintained excellent communications with everyone, including architects, developers and neighbors who didn’t agree with us. We ended up with a good compromise.” 
   Council member Paul Rosenstein questioned the need for an emergency ordinance as did several of the speakers. 
   City Planning Director Suzanne Frick explained that the emergency status was due to the pending September 22 expiration of the interim measure. “If we do not do this as an emergency, we risk there being a gap.”
   Ordinarily, an ordinance goes into effect 30 days after it is approved. An emergency ordinance goes into effect immediately.
   City Attorney Marcia Moutrie told the Council that while it was possible to pass the ordinance at the August 17 meeting and avoid the “break,” there are ”other reasons to adopt it tonight.” 
   Rosenstein made a motion to remove the ordinance’s emergency status, but as there was no second , the motion died. 
   “I’ve been getting tons of phone calls from people all over the city asking that it be expanded into their areas—tons of calls,” Sosin said.
   Planning Commissioner Eric Parlee, an architect, said he felt the measure was “a bit of a straitjacket approach.” Darrell Clarke who was a member of the group that formulated the ordinance and was recently appointed to the Planning Commission, said that his biggest fear is that the measure isn’t as restrictive as it could be. “It goes farther than some people would like it to go. Other people will say it doesn’t go far enough,” he said.