Peter Corbett
Arizona Business Gazette
Mar. 6, 2008 12:00 AM
Neighbors describe it as a storage shed, or even a cargo container, even though the second-story home addition has been approved by Scottsdale and the McCormick Ranch Property Owners Association. Homeowner Alfred DeSatz-Newell is nearly finished with his expansion project at 7613 E. Via del Reposo.
DeSatz-Newell’s battle with his neighbors, especially John and Rita Hacche next door, has created bad blood for five years.
“It’s just plain ugly,” neighbor Joan Zittle said of the second story that DeSatz-Newell added.
The issue of second-story home additions, sometimes referred to as “pop-ups,” and the turmoil they create among neighbors is widespread.
Public-radio host Garrison Keillor has sued his neighbor in St. Paul, Minn., over a two-story addition next to his historic home.
Similar spats have involved residents of Scottsdale Ranch, Equestrian Manor, the Buenavante neighborhood and the Biltmore Greens in Phoenix.
“It’s a problem we see it all over Arizona, from Bisbee to Kingman,” said attorney Clint Goodman, president of the Homeowners Institute, a group formed last year to represent homeowners in battles with neighborhood associations.
Bill would rein in associations
The institute is backing House Bill 2724 in the Arizona Legislature to force homeowner groups to more uniformly enforce their community building regulations. Homeowner boards are akin to “very small town politics . . . and I see it when the politics go bad,” Goodman said.
John Hacche said his neighbor, DeSatz-Newell, got favorable treatment from the McCormick Ranch Property Owners Association.
The board approved an addition that Hacche said fails to meet its regulations because it has metal siding.
Plus, he contends that DeSatz-Newell is turning the home into a duplex, which would not be allowed in the neighborhood lake homes valued at nearly $1 million.
Garth Saager, executive director of the McCormick Ranch Property Owners Association, said DeSatz-Newell has filed documents stating that the home will not be a duplex.
Homeowner got approvals
The addition meets the association’s and the city’s building regulations, Saager and city officials say. “Whenever somebody wants to build a second story it becomes a major problem,” Saager said. “But from a legal standpoint we can’t stop that. . . . You’re not entitled to your view.”
Frank Gray, Scottsdale Planning and Development Services general manager, said older neighborhoods throughout the nation deal with the fallout of pop-ups, scrape-offs or tear-downs.
The terms refer to residents who radically alter the size of their home or build huge new ones that dwarf their neighbors’.
Scottsdale does not do architectural review for single-family homes, Gray said.
A neighborhood association may set a single-story height limit. Sherwood Heights in southwest Scottsdale did so several years ago after a homeowner added a second level.
“The bottom line issue in most cases is privacy,” said Gray, noting that neighbors do not want someone looking down into their backyard or pool.
Neighbors feud over additionIn
McCormick Ranch, Hacche complained that his neighbor’s addition, which rises nearly 30 feet above his side yard pool and patio, does not fit with the scale of his or other neighborhood homes. He faces a wall 27 feet high and 70 feet long with no windows.
Area homes are built with zero lot lines, meaning there is virtually no setback from the property line.
Hacche has barred the contractor from coming onto his property to work on DeSatz-Newell’s addition.
That forced DeSatz-Newell to revise his plans and spend an additional $24,000 for the metal siding that faces the Hacche’s home, said Joannie Flatt, a longtime Valley publicist and friend of DeSatz-Newell.
“Freddie did everything he could to accommodate Mr. Hacche, short of not building his addition,” Flatt said. “Mr. Hacche harassed him every step of the way.”
It is clear that the dispute has gotten personal, as it often does, observers say.
The Hacche’s say they want DeSatz-Newell to remove the second-story addition and put one up that fits with the neighborhood.
Other neighborhood battles
Neighbors in other Scottsdale neighborhoods have similar complaints. Scottsdale Ranch residents are still battling with their homeowners association over a two-story carriage house being added at 10242 N. 99th Place that they want torn down.
In the Buenavante neighborhood, Cathie Warshawsky complained about two-story garage a neighbor added near 78th Place and Charter Oak Road. She said it looks like a prison wall.
Homeowner Chris Young, a car broker, said he bought in Buenavante because the large lot allowed him to add the garage.
He got all the permits and followed the city codes, Young said, adding that he did not want to anger the neighbors.
“But after the way some of the neighbors treated my wife, flipping her off, I don’t really care if they’re mad,” he said.
0 Responses to “AZ Republic – Homes additions, renovations rile neighborhoods”