It happens every week in Laguna Beach: An architect or homeowner goes before the city's Design Review Board, seeking approval for a new home or remodeling project, only to be told to go back to the drawing board.
Sometimes the board members look at a proposal and ask incredulously, "Are you kidding?"
Critics of the powerful seven-member board say its decisions are often frustrating and demoralizing and almost always send someone -- homeowners, protesting neighbors, or both -- away angry. Such decisions can be not only arbitrary and inconsistent, but expensive, they say.
The legions of disgruntled neighbors, architects and homeowners have grown such that Mayor Cheryl Kinsman says her open-door hours with the public are dominated by complaints about the Design Review Board.
So Kinsman will establish a mayoral task force to explore how to make the process less contentious.
"I don't like to see anger so extreme that people, even though they might get a house approved, don't want to live there," because of animosity toward their protesting neighbors, Kinsman said.
Kinsman said she will name the members of the task force at a council meeting in August. The panel will have one member from the Planning Commission, one from the Design Review Board and three from the public. Kinsman wants one of the public members to be a local architect.
Their mission will be to come back to the council in six months with a list of recommendations to make the experience of going before the Design Review Board less stressful. The council will then decide on the value of the recommendations.
Unlike many critics, Kinsman doesn't believe that the board is what needs to be fixed.
"I don't think the Design Review Board is the problem," she said. "It's the process and regulations we have given them to work with. I want to know if there is something we can change to reduce the animosity in the neighborhood."
There's debate whether the solution lies in better-defined design guidelines or more sympathetic or consistent design reviewers.
The most common kind of dispute before the review board is whether a design blocks views.
Indeed, in a city where "everyone wants a peek of the ocean," according to board member Suzanne Morrison, any new home or remodel that infringes on views is met with fierce opposition.
Architect Ryan Ghere bought a small cottage on Oak Street nearly two years ago and had planned a more spacious home for his family that he believed was in character with the neighborhood.
