Homeowners Vickey and Mehr Beglari filed paperwork last month with the Los Angeles Zoning Administration asking for a variance to maintain the 14-foot setback on their home at 864 Brooktree Rd. in lieu of the required prevailing setback.
Jenny Kim, a lawyer with Luna & Glushon filing the zoning appeal, declined to talk to the Palisadian-Post and referred the request to Rob Glushon, who did not return the Post’s phone call.
In the Superior Court October 2007 decision, the Beglaris were ordered to bring their 8,550-sq.-ft. house into “compliance with city municipal code,” which would require them to remove 14 feet—the equivalent of as much as 2,000 sq. ft— from their three-story house’s street front. The building permit and the certificate of occupancy were revoked.
Given the difficult situation the Beglaris find themselves—not able live in it, sell it or refinance it––a variance is the last thing they can do, said John Rosenfeld, one of the five plaintiffs in the case, who successfully won the Superior Court judgment that revoked the Building and Safety Department 2001 approval of a 6,550-sq.-ft. addition to their existing 2,000-sq.- ft. ranch-style house.
“In granting a variance, the city has to be able to make findings, supported by evidence, that something is unique to the property and that to enforce the judgment would be unfair,” Rosenfeld said. “This doesn’t offer Beglari much succor. If we don’t agree that it’s a valid basis, we have the right to take the case back to the same judge [Superior Court Judge David Velasquez, who invalidated the decision of the city’s department building and safety] and let him decide.
“If Beglari establishes this in a way that is lawful, then so be it. We will rely on the immutable laws of economics.”
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