Group threatens suit for house

Corona del Mar resident Dan Spletter fears his morning walks in Begonia Park will be forever spoiled if Kim Megonigal and his wife are granted permission to build their 35,000-square-foot retirement home on an empty lot next to the park.

Spletter and a well-organized group of residents called Friends of Begonia Park said Megonigal’s dreams for a three-story home near the site will block the ocean view from the park and are asking the Newport Beach City Council to strike down plans for the house. The council will vote tonight on whether to give Megonigal permission to build there after the Planning Commission unanimously approved the structure.

“The park is an asset of the city, and one of the amenities of this asset is the view,” said Spletter, co-chairman of the Begonia Park group. Spletter has lived down the street from the park since 1975 and says the area is a beloved gathering place for him and his neighbors. “If you take away a substantial part of the view, you lower the value of the asset.”

Megonigal said he has found his plans to build a peaceful home overlooking the ocean to spend his retirement blocked by a growing group of citizen activists.

“It’s a beautiful lot that has a view, and it was zoned for a single-family house, which is what we’re planing to build,” said Megonigal, who purchased the vacant lot next to the park 10 years ago. “It’s just a basic property-rights issue. We have done everything we can to protect the view from the park.”

The house, designed by Irvine-based architect David Olson, would be a three-story structure in a style Megonigal calls “warm contemporary.”

Megonigal said he has done everything he can to appease Friends of Begonia Park — mostly people he hopes will one day be his neighbors. The house has already been through five sets of plans, and Megonigal has a lot of money tied up in the project, he said.

Friends of Begonia Park has hired an attorney and a biologist to help in its fight against the Megonigals and plans to sue the city if it doesn’t block plans for the home, Spletter said.

About 200 people have signed up to support the group, he said.

“If the city approves the plan, our options are to appeal to the [California] Coastal Commission, then we’re considering suing the city, who are not being good stewards of the public property,” Spletter said.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.