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After sharp public opposition, Design Review Board approves 399 Pearl Street remodel and ADU with conditions
Summary
Following multiple public comments and months of revisions, the board approved a major remodel and ADU at 399 Pearl Street but required specific plan changes — including moving a trellis, a planter buffer and eliminating a variance — to address privacy and compatibility concerns.
Laguna Beach’s Design Review Board approved a revised major‑remodel and accessory dwelling unit project at 399 Pearl Street after extensive public testimony and design changes intended to reduce massing and protect neighbors’ privacy.
Staff planner Brenda Wisneski summarized the project and noted the variance previously requested was withdrawn after the applicant altered the proposal. She explained changes since prior hearings: lowering the building height by 1½ feet, reducing eaves, increasing ADU setback from neighboring properties, relocating a trellis to comply with setbacks, and adding a 5½‑foot deep planter with proposed 2‑foot plantings intended to screen lower‑level sight lines.
Several neighbors told the board they still opposed the proposal. Justine Fluent and family members presented renderings and flagged what they called a dramatic increase in building site coverage and a loss of privacy for downhill properties. "This proposal does the complete opposite" of the standards permitting lot‑coverage modifications, one neighbor said, urging the board to uphold the municipal code and deny the project. Another neighbor, Linda Fluent, testified that the proposal would tower over her patio and harm her living conditions.
The applicant and architect said they worked iteratively with staff and neighbors and that the latest design reduces impacts through stepping and landscaping while retaining a reasonable ADU size. Architect Chris Laterno said the trellis relocation, added planter and stepped upper level "strengthen" privacy compared with earlier iterations.
Board members debated the legal standard for allowing building‑site coverage exceedances—whether the excess was "necessary" to preserve views, privacy, reduce heights, or maintain neighborhood development patterns. After deliberation, the board adopted staff’s recommended resolution with conditions that incorporate the applicant’s last‑minute modifications, require preservation of an existing mature tree, add one more privacy shrub (pittosporum) at the southwest corner, and remove findings related to the withdrawn variance. The motion passed 3-1.
What happens next: Staff will finalize the resolution with the board’s conditions; neighbors retain standard appeal rights.
