New house, community approval, over the top.

[JMPRO]

I know someone that got a property in Laguna Beach Ca. in an estate settlement. He decided to build a new house ,actually a major remodel on the old one. He has been designing restaurant interiors for years and knows everything about designing the inside and out of a building. Even though he can do all the drawing and design himself he is not certified so he hired a licensed architect to do all the drawing for pulling permits and such. Here is the rub, all of the drawings including the landscape design have to be submitted for community approval. You have a community meeting and everyone that cares get to come in and pick your plans apart. This is not a gated community and there is no community association but if some snob doesn't like something about your plan they can shoot it down.
As some of you may know Laguna Beach Ca. is a artsy-fartsy town so they don't want someone to build a house that looks like a VW bus or a giant vagina so I can understand there needs to be some guidelines but this guy knows how to design a very nice home and some of you have probably dined at some of the restaurants he designed and for Joe Blow the Persian rug dealer that lives down the street to have any say in how the house is designed is a joke. In the first meeting someone didn't like the window style he chose, in the second meeting they shot down his landscape plans. He now has to revise his landscape plans at a cost of several hundred dollars and resubmit again at a cost $200.00. I saw the first plans and the design was top drawer.
If it were me I think I would just show the City and its inhabitants my middle digit and give them a big" Kiss My Ass" on the way out but he is being much more civilized than I and trying to work it out with them. I think some of the city governments and these community action groupes have gotten way too much power and are turning into little power mongers that want to controll everything.
Jerry

[The Gaijin]

It amazing to me in all kinds of permitting process by various government entities - just how much is left to subjectivity. I mean, a lawn is a lawn. An ugly lawn is nobody's business.

The Land of the Free, I guess..

[crustychief]

Wow, I'm glad he gets to build his neighbors dream house. I wouldn't mind the giant vagina house. Might be cool?

[JMPRO]

I have I house in Capistrano Beach that I am considering tearing down and building a new house on the lot. I will have to do a complete geological survey and completely regrade the property before I can build even though the lot has been there for nearly 50 years and hasn't moved an inch in that time. The survey and the regrade is almost $20,000.00. I am sure these regulations are just to cover someones tail in case the hillside slides off into the ocean but they are a little over the top. I need to get this thing built before it turns into another Laguna Beach.

Jerry

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Welcome to Kalifornia.

If you ever want, I can bore you for literally HOURS over a beer or two regarding the gymnastics and gyrations that architects need to go through trying to keep:

- the owner happy
- the developer happy
- the city planning commission happy
- the neighborhood council happy
- the fire department happy
- the police department happy
- the water reclamation districts happy
- the inspectors happy
- the general contractors happy

etc. etc. etc.

It's all a balancing act. By the time you get done, there's very little latitude in anything. "Design" was stripped away from the architect years ago - for the most part anyway (there are still those occasional "golden" projects that show up, but they're rare).

Planners are tricky - a lot of them are great and don't get into "micromanaging" the design, they just want to ensure general contextual appropriateness with the neighborhood and overall City plan, but there are a few (well, more than a few) that are Grade-A arseholez. "Wanna-be architects" we call them. Most aren't, but some are and will get into everything down to the color of your steel, above the ceiling on the inside of a building (no, I'm not making that one up).

Best of luck to you.

[JMPRO]

Lucky for me I have an architect/builder/on site construction manager that waded into these waters many times in this same area and knows all the pit falls in advance. I spoke briefly with a guy in the planning dept in this city and he ask me what builder I was using and I gave his name. The planning dept guy said he was the best builder he had ever worked with and the guy knew his stuff. That gave me a bit of extra confidence.
I am looking at another vacant lot in the same neighborhood to buy and build on so I may have to start the process all over again. I don't have any money into this project yet so I 'm not out anything. The only big differance will be the taxes on my old property are at the 1976 level and the new lot will be at 2009 level amounting to several thousand a year increase in taxes. I might add the new lot is a much better location and bigger.

[MFAFF]

Jeff,

If that's how you view it then you are either in the wrong part of town (or country)...or you are doing something wrong...

Either way we may have the same job but we sure as hell don't do the same work..

But then again its all about making sure all of those guys buy into your ideas and accept what you are proposing... I happily spend my life drawing my designs away and making sure I have a story to bring every one in line...

JM...

Your buddy needs to do the same...bring his neighbours along with his ideas..make sure they understand and agree with what he is doing..

That is the majority of the skill and talent in getting anything built...regardless of the design..

[robbajob]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Welcome to Kalifornia.

If you ever want, I can bore you for literally HOURS over a beer or two regarding the gymnastics and gyrations that architects need to go through trying to keep:

- the owner happy
- the developer happy
- the city planning commission happy
- the neighborhood council happy
- the fire department happy
- the police department happy
- the water reclamation districts happy
- the inspectors happy
- the general contractors happy

etc. etc. etc.

It's all a balancing act. By the time you get done, there's very little latitude in anything. "Design" was stripped away from the architect years ago - for the most part anyway (there are still those occasional "golden" projects that show up, but they're rare).

Planners are tricky - a lot of them are great and don't get into "micromanaging" the design, they just want to ensure general contextual appropriateness with the neighborhood and overall City plan, but there are a few (well, more than a few) that are Grade-A arseholez. "Wanna-be architects" we call them. Most aren't, but some are and will get into everything down to the color of your steel, above the ceiling on the inside of a building (no, I'm not making that one up).

Best of luck to you.

I can empathize, I think your sentiments ring true for a lot of so called 'creative' industries. I work in advertising as a writer and death by committee is a daily occurrence. I'm constantly baffled by clients that pay us large sums of money for our professional opinion only to then ignore it and change everything we've done because them, their wife and their dog apparently know better.