News, City Council, Real Estate, Santa Monica

Posted Nov. 27, 2012, 5:07 pm

Brenton Garen / Editor-in-Chief

The Santa Monica estate known as the “House of Rock” has been listed for $22 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The multimillion-dollar estate at 2009 La Mesa Drive made headlines in October after multiple musical events had been causing grief for neighbors.

The estate’s listing comes after Santa Monica City Council members last month asked the homeowner, Elaine Culotti, for personal assurances she would not continue hosting events at the estate after Dec. 6.

The Oct. 23 City Council meeting spent more than two hours deliberating the future of House of Rock. More than 40 people addressed the dais during public comment, some of them residents opposed to the House of Rock and others musicians and artists in favor of the group’s charitable events.

Culotti herself spent several minutes essentially being interrogated by council members.

At heart of the debate and deliberation was whether House of Rock LLC, who hosts a variety of music-themed events at the private residence and draws hundreds of people, served as a nuisance to the neighborhood. Even more, there was concern House of Rock LLC was operating as a business in an area zoned for residential use.

Culotti maintained to the council the House of Rock raises money for charities and is not a business in the traditional sense and, therefore, is not in violation of any zoning laws.

La Mesa Drive is an affluent neighborhood just above San Vicente Boulevard, in between 19th and 21st Streets, and near the Riviera Country Club.

Culotti, who bought the home for $7.7 million in 2010, always planned to sell the home after she finished renovating and redesigning it, according to the Wall Street Journal.