New law will grandparent in existing hedges
OCEAN PARK — Residents living in a two-story apartment building are in dispute with a woman who has restored a 1911 Craftsman home next door and has no intention of cutting the bamboo hedges that separate her from them.
Citing health and safety reasons, tenants living in a 20-unit complex on the 400 block of Raymond Avenue would like their neighbor, property owner Gail Howell, to cut the hedges that line the east side of the apartment building in which they live to a “manageable level.”
The bamboo hedges in Howell’s backyard stand higher than 30 feet. Howell said they expand outward for a month and a half once a year, but are otherwise well contained.
The dispute continues as the Santa Monica City Council is set to adopt a new hedge ordinance tonight that will increase the size of such growths allowed on side and rear yards. Hedges such as Howell’s are to be grandparented in when the law takes effect in August. The new law attempts to update a hedge ordinance that dates back to 1948, while acknowledging some property owners might prefer taller hedges than previously allowed.
Residents will be required to maintain the 42-inch height limit for any new front yard hedge installation, while side-and rear-yard enclosure limits will be bumped from 8 feet to 12 feet. The council directed staff to establish rules to permit the grandparenting of hedges, fences and walls, as well as establish a procedure for appeals with the planning commission.
Grandparenting permits will cost $100. Some tenants argue Howell’s bamboo “severely blocks the sunlight and restricts the airflow and breezes into the apartments.” They said the lack of light and cross ventilation has “exacerbated the growth of mold and mildew” in their homes.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Harvey Kalikow, a tenant who opposes the size of the hedges. “Someone could easily go out there dressed in black and cut the bamboo with a machete late at night, but he’d probably be thrown in jail.”
Harvey said tenants would be charged $25,000 to retain a private attorney to help fight the size of the hedges. Meanwhile, the apartment property owner is taking Howell to court seeking $5,000 for damages to a parking garage wall supposedly related to over-watering.
Howell bought the Craftsman home more than a year ago and lives in it. She said she has since restored the one-story house at tremendous expense and always had the intention of putting up the hedges to block the view of the two two-story apartment buildings between which her home is squeezed.
City Hall began revisiting its hedge ordinance shortly after Howell began renovating the Craftsman. Howell said she would not have bought the home if she knew she would not be able to put up the barrier.
Howell said it is wrong for City Hall to enforce a law that has been ignored for decades. It is an issue she said she feels so passionately about she would be willing to take it to the California Supreme Court.
“Why would I have invested my life savings into this place if I couldn’t obliterate that view?” Howell said, pointing at the faded-white apartment building next door. “When’s the last time they painted their walls?”
Howell said she would trim the bamboo so they are level with the top of the two-story apartment buildings, but no lower, since she is concerned about the tenants being able to gaze into her back-yard.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 26, 2005. Read the original PDF.