By Monday’s deadline, Mehr and Vickey Beglari had not vacated their house in Rustic Canyon, nor had they demolished their residence at the corner of Greentree and Brooktree Road, as they were originally ordered to do by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. The January 5 order to comply came after a five-year battle between the Beglaris and five of their neighbors, who took the case all the way to the California Court of Appeal, which affirmed the neighbors’ civil suit against both the homeowners and the City of L.A. However, Building and Safety rescinded the order on February 7, to the surprise of the plaintiffs, who are now considering further legal action. “The city appears to be making exactly the same mistake it made before in dealing with the Beglaris,” said attorney John Rosenfeld. “We are confident this new action will not stand up in court.” The Beglaris had obtained a building permit in January 2001 to build a 6,550-sq.-ft., two-story addition to their existing 2,000-sq.-ft. ranch-style house at 909 Greentree Rd. Their problem began in April of that year when they started excavating the front of their 10,000-sq.-ft. lot to build an underground garage. The neighbors thought the Beglaris were digging too close to the curb and suspected that the setback was not in accordance with the municipal code. In October 2002, Associate Zoning Administrator Lourdes Green concluded that not only did the setback violate code but that Building and Safety had erred in calculating the “prevailing” front-yard setback for the Beglari house’which was measured from the Beglaris’ next-door neighbor’s detached garage to the curb, instead of from the neighbor’s house to the curb, as required by law. Even though the Beglari residence was found to be 14 feet closer to the street (Greentree) than permitted by the zoning code, the City Planning Commission overruled Green in February 2003. The legal wrangling on both sides finally ended last spring, with the Court of Appeal ordering Building and Safety to revoke all permits issued to the Beglaris, as well as their 2002 certificate of occupancy. The neighbors were elated until they discovered earlier this month that Building and Safety had not only rescinded the order but reinstated the Beglaris’ building permits “to reflect the revised front-yard prevailing setback based on the current circumstances.” Even more startling was the revelation that the “revised” setback that allowed for the reinstatement had nothing to do with the Beglaris’ residence at 909 Greentree’the subject of the protracted dispute’but from a property the couple owns at 921 Greentree, two doors down the street. There, the couple built a five-foot addition to the front of the three-bedroom, two-bath ranch-style house which they purchased in 2004. The addition’which is attached to the chimney and consists of a sloped composite roof supported by two wood pillars (four-by-fours)’not only serves the purpose of decreasing the house’s setback from the street, but in doing so alters the “prevailing” setback for the entire block’which consists of four residences. According to Section 12.07 of the zoning code, “prevailing” setbacks are calculated by taking the property the shortest distance from the street (which, in this case, is an attached carport at 925 Greentree that is 9’11” from the curb), adding the setbacks of any properties within 10 feet, then averaging them out. However, since there is only one property within 10 feet of 925, only the setback for 921 (which is 17’5″, as measured from the edge of the Beglaris’ new addition to the curb) was used in calculating the new “prevailing” setback, which Building and Safety concluded to be 13’3″‘approximately six inches less than the once unacceptable setback of 13’9″ for 909 Greentree, instantly rendering it compliant. “The addition at 921 Greentree is built to code and even though it extends out five feet beyond the house, there is still enough distance between the addition and the curb to comply with the required front-yard setback for this property,” Building and Safety spokesman Bob Steinbach told the Palisadian-Post on Tuesday. Section 12.03 of the zoning code allows for any structure that has a roof and is supported by columns or walls to be used as an enclosure for animals or personal property. The code further states that because the addition is a legal extension of the house, the setback is no longer measured from the chimney to the curb, but from the new addition to the curb. What surprised plaintiff Rosenfeld about the latest Building and Safety ruling is “how the city now appears to have inappropriately altered one setback to try and justify what is their obvious blunder on another. Both measurements are flawed, as far as we’re concerned. That’s what caused the problem in the first place. What if everyone wanted to put their house closer to the street, like the Beglaris? What happens to setbacks then?” (Editor’s note: Contacted on Tuesday evening, Vickey Beglari said she had no comment on the Building and Safety ruling, and Mehr Beglari did not return our call by the time we went to press Wednesday.)

Gavin MacLeod might be known as the Captain, but in June he’ll have a new hat to wear: Honorary Mayor of Pacific Palisades. He follows Steve Guttenberg, who will have served for four years. “Steve’s going to give me some pointers,” said MacLeod, who’s famous for his roles as Captain Merrill Stubing on “The Love Boat” and news writer Murray Slaughter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Both shows were Saturday-night hits from 1970 to 1986. In an interview with the Palisadian-Post at Mogan’s Caf’ on Monday, he joked about the shoes he has to fill. “I’m going to follow this young kid with all this hair.” MacLeod, who turns 75 next week, said he agreed to be mayor after he was assured that his frequent business trips would not be a conflict. He’s been a spokesman for Princess Cruises since 1986, and often travels on various cruise ships to participate in naming ceremonies and other events. He plans to keep in touch with the community by letter-writing to the Post when he’s out of town, a tradition started by former Honorary Mayor Jerry Lewis (1953) and continued today with Guttenberg’s “Gute News.” When Arnie Wishnick, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, told MacLeod last year to think about being mayor, MacLeod consulted his wife, Patti. “She said, ‘I think it would be great.’ It is a great honor. How could I turn something like that down?” He’s already given Patti the title “Mayoress” since “people are probably going to see as much of her as they are of me because we’re always together.” The couple was divorced for three years in the early 1980s before remarrying, and celebrated their 34th anniversary this week. They have a combined seven children and nine grandchildren, and MacLeod has already warned Wishnick that they’re going to have “a big clan” for the Palisades Fourth of July festivities. He rode in the July 2004 parade as a special guest with Patti and their grandson, Peter. “I know Steve used to walk in front [of the car], but he’s a little younger than I am,” said MacLeod, who grew up in Pleasantville, New York, and has retained his strong New York accent. His desire to serve as honorary mayor was actually inspired by longtime friend Ted Knight, who died in 1986. Knight was mayor of the Palisades from 1981 to 1983. The two met in 1957 when they both came to Los Angeles, where MacLeod said they “bought $25,000 houses at the same time’he was in Woodland Hills and I was in Granada Hills.” They shared the same agent, became close friends and were co-stars on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” They both ended up Palisades residents in later years. “He was like my older brother,” MacLeod said. “He was one of the best dramatic actors I’ve ever seen in my life. Every Saturday night, he’d call me after the show and we’d talk about it.” When Knight became sick with cancer, MacLeod visited him in his Palisades home before heading to Cape Cod to work on a production of “Never Too Late.” It was during that last visit that he and Patti, who had become born-again Christians, recited a prayer with Ted and his wife, Dorothy. Even now, tears swell in MacLeod’s eyes when he recalls his friend’s death. “Dorothy contacted me and asked me to do the eulogy,” MacLeod said. “It was like I was writing a telegram or a last letter to him. I reviewed many of the experiences we had had together when we were younger and growing up.” He remembers that years later, “Dottie said, ‘Gavin, you know, you’ve got the right personality to be the mayor.’ I said, ‘The mayor of what?’ She said, ‘Pacific Palisades.’ I said, ‘Oh, come on, I don’t even live here.'” Dorothy passed away in 2005. The MacLeods moved back to California from Cape Cod in 2001 and settled in the Palisades to be closer to their family, who live in California and Hawaii. Their son Tommy Steele, his wife Fiona and their children Jane and Annie are Palisades residents. “We love everything about it here,” MacLeod said. “The air is so great. We love to go and park at Castellammare and look at the ocean.” They also enjoy eating at restaurants in town and supporting the local shops. “I like to be with Patti, no matter what we do,” he said. “She likes Gelson’s and I like Ralphs. We shop at Gelson’s most of the time but I love the people who wait on you at Ralphs.” MacLeod has worked with a handful of Palisadians, including Billy Crystal, who played “the kissing bandit” on an episode of “The Love Boat,” and former Honorary Mayor Nanette Fabray (1967). Fabray also appeared on “The Love Boat” as well as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and she and MacLeod played husband and wife in a production of “No, No, Nanette” in Long Beach. “There was one number that she did,” he remembered, “where she started tapping and that was just chilling’to see her tap. All of the other dancers filled in behind her; the whole stage was full and there she was in the center. That was the highlight of the show. “I worked with a lot of people on stage, but she was the best,” MacLeod continued. “Nanette is an icon and a legend. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. She could do anything.” MacLeod does not know a lot of people in the Palisades and said that most people in town don’t recognize him as an actor. “It’s kind of refreshing,” he said, admitting that he’s led a quiet, low-profile life here. “Being anonymous is sort of my middle name.” But he’s looking forward to getting to know the community and is interested in some of the more pressing issues, such as a location for a dog park, even though he does not have a solution to offer. “The bottom line is, you want everybody to like you, and that means you can’t make any decisions,” he said, laughing. The MacLeods used to have five dogs but found other homes for all of them because of the couple’s frequent travels. In June, before Gavin becomes Honorary Mayor, he plans to attend his 54th Ithaca College reunion and a naming ceremony for a new Princess ship, both in New York. He will fly back to the Palisades just in time for the installation dinner on June 15. If attendees at the dinner notice some extra cameras that evening, it might be the crew of Windmill Entertainment, who MacLeod said are interested in filming the installation for a “Living in TV Land” program on him. The show follows classic TV stars in their daily lives. In the past they’ve featured Dick Van Patten and William Shatner. In recent months, Van Patten, Mary Tyler Moore and MacLeod appeared together in an episode of “That ’70s Show” before it went off the air. MacLeod also has made guest appearances on “King of Queens,” and appeared in the film “Checking Out” (2005) with Peter Falk. His latest work is an improvisational film called “The Cook Off,” in which he plays himself as a celebrity judge. Of the hundreds of characters he’s played, he said his favorite is “whoever I’m playing at the moment.” Then he added, “If I ever had anything to do with making a mark on this business, I’m so glad it was with ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and ‘The Love Boat.’ ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ has been called one of the greatest half-hours in the history of television and ‘The Love Boat’ created an industry.” He jokes that, in his new role as Honorary Mayor, he will have to hang another sign on the front of his Highlands home, near the one that says “Captain’s Paradise.” The new sign he envisions would be “Mayor’s Retreat.”

On Monday, just before 6 p.m. on the 700 block of Hartzell, a Pacific Palisades resident was robbed by suspects later connected to four other robberies in an area ranging from Santa Monica to West Los Angeles. According to LAPD Senior Lead Officer Chris Ragsdale, the victim was loading items into his car, which was parked on the street, when a black vehicle, possibly a Nissan, approached him. There were four suspects in the car, described as Hispanic males, 20-25 years of age, wearing white t-shirts and black pants, and armed with a blue steel revolver. The two suspects sitting in the right side of the car got out, approached the resident, drew the handgun and demanded money as well as the victim’s cell phone. The victim complied, and the suspects fled with the victim’s wallet, its contents and the cell phone. The same suspects, who Ragsdale called “serial robbers,” had committed two robberies about an hour earlier near the Westside Pavilion’one at 5 p.m on Westwood Boulevard and another on Pico Boulevard near Veteran. “We were focusing around there for the vehicle,” Ragsdale said. After leaving the Palisades, the suspects committed two other robberies that evening, one of them in Santa Monica. “These guys were quite active,” Ragsdale said. He added that the police could not be sure if the crimes were part of a gang initiation or if the suspects were robbing for sport. The crimes are currently under investigation.

An ongoing community effort to halt the genocide in Darfur, Africa, continues at Palisades Charter High School, where four Human Rights Watch Student Task Force groups met with Darfur activists last week. Students from four high schools joined the national Million Voices campaign to help collect one million signed postcards urging President Bush to take action. PaliHi’s HRW Student Task Force alone projected it could gather 4,760 postcards by targeting mass-attendance events at the school, doing outreach in the larger community and publicizing their mission through media and networking systems. The nationwide goal is to deliver one million postcards to the president by April 30. “Students have been the leaders in this campaign,” said Mark Hanis, co-founder and chief executive of the nonprofit Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net). He spoke with students about the importance of sending security as opposed to aid to the people in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The humanitarian crisis began in February 2003 when the Sudanese government initiated attacks against civilians in Darfur after rebels in the region rose up to demand a greater role in Sudan’s leadership. Almost three years later, the Sudanese government-sponsored Janjaweed militia has displaced more than two million people who are living in refugee camps in Darfur and Chad, which borders Darfur to the west. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people have died, and experts predict that as many as one million civilians could die in Darfur from hunger and disease in the coming months. “Instead of treating [the genocide] like [Hurricane] Katrina, let’s think more about the political action,” said Hanis, who graduated from Swarthmore College in 2005 and is the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors. “All the politicians keep saying ‘Never again, never again’,” said Hanis, referring to the inaction of the U.S. government during the Rwandan genocide. The problem is that politicians won’t take action unless they’re convinced that enough constituents are concerned about the issue. “Why should they care if all we do is turn the channel and go back to dinner?” Hanis said, comparing last year’s meager coverage of Darfur to widespread coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. “When it’s on 24/7, people do something about it.” Sudan actually made the news this week when Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek donated his $25,000 bonus from the U.S. Olympic Committee to a humanitarian organization called Right to Play, and specifically to a program for refugees in Chad. The American speedskater won the men’s 500-meter race Monday night in Turin. Hanis encouraged students to call and write to their local Congressional representatives, alerting them to the genocide and urging them to take action. Now is a crucial time, since this month the United States is president of the United Nations Security Council. HRW Student Task Force representatives from PaliHi, led by Palisades resident and STF coordinator Pam Bruns, met with Congressman Henry Waxman in December to advocate for his continued support. Last week Waxman signed on to a letter calling for U.S. leadership on the UN Security Council with regard to the Darfur crisis. “This is not history. This is happening now,” said activist Gabriel Stauring, who recently returned from a trip to the refugee camps in Chad. He spoke about his journey at last week’s HRW/STF meeting and presented a slide show so students and teachers could connect to the issue on a more personal level. Most of the images showed women and children dressed in colorful clothing, many of them smiling’if cautiously’against a desert background of tents and straw huts. “Their resilience is incredible, but you can see behind the smiles that those kids have seen way too much,” said Stauring, who communicated with the refugees through a translator and posted video footage of his 21 days in the camps on his Web site, www.stopgenocidenow.org. Many Darfurians had walked 9 to 10 days to reach a camp, and numerous men had been killed; the surviving males are mainly 15 and 16 years old. When the women and children say their sons and brothers are “back in Sudan,” it often means they’re dead, Stauring said. The women and girls, who cook, build houses and take care of children in the camps, are often attacked and raped when they travel outside the camps to collect firewood for cooking. But the alternative is sending the boys, who might get killed. “[The women] are really the power that runs the camps,” said Stauring, who met a 14-year-old girl named Farha who had walked 25 days from Darfur to get to the Oure Cassoni refugee camp on the Chad-Darfur border. It’s one of the larger camps with more than 30,000 refugees, and one of the most dangerous because there are often attacks inside, according to Stauring. Farha is the head of her household, in charge of taking care of her siblings because her mother went looking for a son who was separated from the family during an attack. “The day I met her, she had not seen her mother for 41 days,” Stauring said, adding that it made him wonder, “Would we feel okay if Farha was our neighbor and had to live in those conditions? Why is distance a factor for when we act in situations like this?” He was inspired by the refugees’ sense of hope, explaining that when someone like himself visits the camps, “they think, ‘Maybe this will be the guy who’s going to help us.'” Besides security, education is another problem in the camps, Stauring said, explaining that there is only one primary school that children attend until they’re about 14 or 15, and most are too traumatized by what they’ve seen to be able to learn. For more information, visit www.genocideintervention.net or www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org. For local Darfur action/engagement, contact: hrwla@hrw.org (Subject line: Attention Darfur STF).

After a brief presentation by both opponents and supporters at last Wednesday’s California Coastal Commission hearing in Chula Vista, the commission voted unanimously to approve the controversial Palisades Landmark condo project in Castellammare, with several conditions. “I’m relieved,” developer Ken Kahan told the Palisadian-Post on Monday. “It’s been a long process. I’m happy it’s over. We’ve made a lot of compromises to satisfy the residents and I do believe the project will improve the area.” However, prior to issuance of the coastal permit, Kahan must provide detailed plans and final architectural drawings incorporating all of the changes that have been agreed upon with both the commission, the City of L.A., as well as local residents, which include limiting the overall height of each structure to 48 feet (as measured from the floor to the garage to the highest point on the roof), and allowing for greater distance between the buildings to further reduce the density. The commission limited the number of units to 61 (reduced from 82) and parking is restricted to 2-1/2 spaces per unit, which conforms to L.A. City standards. The commission further requires the developer to use contrasting earth and chaparral tones on the facades of the buildings so they better blend into the hillside. In addition, Palisades Landmark is required to monitor the level of groundwater on the property, as well as any slope movement and soil moisture prior to construction. By accepting the permit, the developer acknowledges and accepts the risk that the site may be subject to landslides and erosion and unconditionally waives any claim of damage or liability against the Commission, its officers, agents or employees. Castellammare residents have been battling the project since it was proposed by Kahan in the fall of 2000. Their concern centers on the advisability of building on the Revello landslide, where a 12-unit apartment building collapsed in 1965. Kahan’s property, located at 17331-17333 Tramonto Dr., will occupy 3.98 acres of hillside, overlooking Santa Monica Bay, above the Sunset/PCH intersection. The design, which resembles an Italian hillside town, will consist of eight buildings anchored by pilons into the bedrock, with parking provided in a subterranean garage. Kahan said it will be at least a year before construction can begin, as he has to give tenants who currently occupying the two apartment buildings on his lot at least that long to relocate, as per his agreement with them. Kahan’s biggest challenge is still how to best repair and stabilize the existing landslide, which requires digging down to bedrock and replacing it with compacted fill to support the proposed buildings. The plan also includes embedding soldier piles to shoulder the hillside. While the Landmark project now has the support of the Ocean Woods Terrace Homeowners Association, as well as several homeowners who have signed a confidentiality agreement with Kahan, still opposed is the Castellammare Mesa Homeowners Association, Community Council advisor Jack Allen, and Castellammare resident Alice Beagles, who attended the commission hearing. “No one has yet told us what the developer is going to do if there is a slide,” said Beagles. “All we know is that even the Coastal Commission doesn’t want that responsibility.” While safeguards will be in place to monitor the progress of the project, including how many truck loads of landfill are permitted on the site in a given day to mitigate traffic concerns, city building permits cannot be issued by L.A.’s Department of Building and Safety until an agreement is reached with the developer on where the required 16 affordable housing units will be located. While these condo units will be located offsite, they must be at within four miles of the coast line, as per the Mello Act.

The enthusiasm was contagious at Canyon Elementary Charter School on Monday, where more than 500 volunteers, cheered on by the students, spent the day helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house for Gulf Coast hurricane victims. By day’s end, the frame of the house was complete, and Tuesday morning it was dismantled and shipped to Florida, its final destination. Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer

Marvin Spiegel, owner of The Office Supplier, said he received an unexpected visit last Wednesday from John Watkins, one of three managing partners of Palisades Partners, which owns the building at 15237 Sunset. “Mr. Watkins came in, said ‘Hello,’ shook my hand, then walked out and proceeded to measure the outside of the front of the store,” said Spiegel, whose lease is up at the end of March. “He didn’t say that we could stay or even that we had to leave. What that means, I don’t know.” Spiegel, 72, who has been leasing the 2,800 sq. ft. space since 1990 from Palisades Partners, the largest landowner in the Village representing multifamily trusts, was told nearly a year ago that he must vacate the Sunset space when his lease expires. Although Spiegel has been in business at the same Sunset location for nearly 16 years, he said he was not given the option to renew’even if he could afford the new rent, which he said would be almost double the $7,000 a month he is currently paying. While Spiegel, who has cut down on inventory in recent months, said he is currently waiting for a 30-day Notice to Vacate from the landlord, commercial realtor Gregg Pawlik, who represents Palisades Partners on some of its retail leases in the Palisades Village, said such a notice may not be forthcoming. “In the State of California there isn’t a requirement for notice when a lease expires, unless there is some prior agreement and I don’t know if there is in this case as I have not seen Mr. Spiegel’s lease,” Pawlik said. “What I do know is when a tenancy is over’any tenancy’the tenant is expected to be out by the last day and that’s that.” Which leaves Spiegal approximately six weeks to either liquidate his inventory or move it to another location by the end of March. But he said he won’t leave before presenting Palisades Partners with a petition he has been circulating for the last year, ever since Palisades Partners announced rent increases for the many storefronts they own in the 1000 block of Swarthmore. The petition, which has 2,585 signatures and calls for a boycott, reads: “We, the undersigned residents of Pacific Palisades, are unhappy with your proposed rent increases in the village, which are causing many longtime businesses to close. The Office Supplier is just one business which will be unable to pay the new rent. We feel so strongly about the character of the village and our local store owners that we want you to know we will not support any new businesses which take their place. Signed…” Last Wednesday, Watkins also paid a visit to The Nest Egg, located next door to the The Office Supplier. There, to the surprise of co-owner Megan Kaufman, he also did some measuring which left her and partner Cindy Ellis wondering about the future of their lease, which expires this summer. Watkins did hint that some storage space on the second floor currently leased by The Nest Egg might be of interest to a prospective new tenant for The Office Supplier. When Kaufman inquired as to who the new tenant might be, all Watkins would say is that it was a retailer “that no one’s seen before in the Palisades,” and that he would know more in the next three months. The Nest Egg, which offers an eclectic assortment of both home and personal merchandise, was just recently remodeled (new carpet, new fixtures and a paint job). Kaufman’s concern now is the fall and Christmas inventory she’s already ordered. “I hope I don’t have to cancel all that stock,” she said. “Business is great. We definitely don’t want to have to move.” Kaufman said Watkins’ visit last week was the first indication she had that there might be some changes in store for The Nest Egg. Asked what kind of new lease she would like she said a three-year “would be comfortable. Five years would feel more secure.” “The landlord has assured me that they are committed to small village stores, like ours,” Ellis said. “I’ve been leasing from them for eight years. They have always been fair to me, and I presume they will continue to be. If anything, we’d like to expand.” Hearing that the landlord is apparently in negotiations to lease his space, Spiegal was not pleased. “If we have to move, I have no idea where we’ll go,” he said. “The Office Supplier has been in the Palisades for 55 years. It might be too late for us but hopefully it won’t be too late for other merchants in town. That’s why we got the petition going.” (Editor’s note: A call to Palisades Partners on Tuesday to ascertain the lease status of both The Office Supplier and The Nest Egg was not returned before we went to press on Wednesday.)