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Land-use attorney asks Santa Monica council to avoid demolition by approving addition where ADU exists
Summary
A land-use attorney representing a homeowner asked the council to direct staff to approve an addition permit at 1213 Pine Street rather than require demolition of an existing ADU, saying the project complies with code and citing case-law limits on absurd interpretations.
Jackson McNeil, a land-use attorney at Elkins Cult, told the council he represents homeowner Fred Larian and asked the council to either direct staff to approve an addition permit at 1213 Pine Street or agendize the issue for formal consideration. McNeil said staff had confirmed the property could be entitled to an addition if the ADU did not exist and argued that interpreting the code to force demolition would produce an absurd result."No doubt exists that this constitutes a permissible code-compliant project," McNeil said, and he asked the council to "avoid this absurd result and approve the addition permit or at least agendize this as a formal item at your next hearing."
A prior public commenter (identified in the meeting as the homeowner) said owners should not be forced to demolish an ADU and rebuild the same structure, describing months of construction, landfill waste and hundreds of thousands in expense that would follow from such an interpretation. McNeil framed the request as a legal interpretation issue and invited questions from council and staff.
Mayor Trosis and staff indicated they would follow up with the speaker; no formal action on this specific permit was taken at the meeting and the council did not vote on the underlying interpretation in open session that night.
