LAGUNA BEACH : Pergola for Roses Is Thorn in City’s Side

In this city, where debates have raged over a shade of white paint or the height of a picket fence, a new dispute is brewing.

This time, the object of the city’s rejection is a pergola, a gazebo-like structure in the garden of a hilltop home overlooking Aliso Pier.

Owner Evangeline Crockett said she erected the airy 13-by-16-foot arbor, a brick-based structure with four wooden pillars upon which rose bushes have begun to climb, only after being told by city workers that the project required no special permission from the city.

Later, Crockett said, she and her husband, Richard Manchester, learned that the $3,500 pergola was built too close to the property line and would require a variance from the city’s Board of Adjustment/Design Review.

Since then, the couple has hustled to rally support for the pergola project.

Some 90 neighbors signed a petition in favor of the pergola, which blocks no views and is painted moss green to blend in with the landscape.

In addition, Crockett said, about 25 supporters have accompanied her to three city hearings.

So far, Crockett said, she and her husband have spent more than $1,000 in fees trying to gain city approval.

But last month, the board rejected the couple’s request on a 3-2 vote, leaving them with two choices: Tear down the structure and move it to another area of their yard or take their case to the City Council.

The couple will exercise the latter option Tuesday night. To overturn the board’s rejection, they will need at least four council votes.

“I’ve spent $5,000 on this thing,” Crockett said. “Now they want me to tear it down and butt it up against my house? It’s a joke.”

Zoning administrator Jack Connors said the couple’s dilemma stems from the fact that they did not initially obtain permission to build the structure in an area so close to the edge of their yard.

All properties in Laguna Beach have a setback area within which nothing can be built without city approval, he said.

“The board takes the position on those things, and the staff as well, that just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you’re going to get to keep it,” Connors said. “If they do the work before they get the permits, they’re way off base. If we allowed people to keep illegal work, just because they did it without a permit, nobody would ever come in for a permit.”

In response to Crockett’s contention that she was told by city staff that there would be “no problem” if she moved forward with her construction, Connors explained that “we frequently have the problem of people misunderstanding what’s being said.”

Ultimately, the board’s opinion was that there were places on the property where the pergola could have been built without requiring a variance, he said.

“It’s quite attractive,” he said. “But the fact is that it was (built) in the setback.”

Crockett, a landscape designer, said the location where the pergola now stands is the only place in her yard where it fits comfortably.

The sloped and terraced lot is blanketed with flowers, shrubs and winding walkways. Elsewhere on the gumdrop shaped parcel are statues, benches and a pond.

To move it closer to the house would require uprooting trees and plants and leveling another section of the yard, she said.

According to Crockett’s own research, the city has granted 10 variances in her neighborhood over the past two years for outside structures near the edge of the property.

“Every yard around me is encroached on their side-yard setback,” Crockett said. “Everybody’s been grandfathered, and everybody’s been given a variance. And then there’s me.”