Beverly Hills : Yard Expansions Rejected

After a raucous two-hour public hearing, the Beverly Hills City Council on Tuesday overturned a decision of the Planning Commission that would have allowed homeowners in the Trousdale Estates section to cut into slopes to gain four more feet of back-yard or side-yard space.

The commission had recommended that residents be allowed to cut into the hillsides behind their homes and erect four-foot retaining walls to gain more living space for barbecues, play areas and parking space in the exclusive area above Sunset Boulevard.

In making its decision, the council sided with longtime residents of the estates who say they bought into the area believing that the neighborhood’s codes, covenants and restrictions would remain unchanged.

Some of the residents said they were concerned that even a four-foot cut into the up-slope could undermine the hillsides and cause slides.

The battle pitted the community’s homeowners association against a new group of homeowners who said the change, aside from increasing usable yard space, would enhance property values.

Councilman Allan L. Alexander said, however, that the benefit from the change would be minimal, and that it was better to leave the code alone rather than set a precedent for changing the community’s longstanding development rules.