By KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Change boils slowly in Normandy Park. And so does controversy.

For proof, look no further than the 14,000-square-foot chateau under construction in the city's northwest corner.

Rumors abound about the luxury home.

One neighbor claims the giant house has 13 bathrooms (it has six) and will be used for an inspirational speaker's weekend retreats (the master permit says it will be a private residence).

Someone else whispers that the property belongs to the heir of a toy company fortune.

"It's built almost on a commercial scale," admits city planner Stephen Bennett, who took office after the project was already underway. "It's testing the envelope as far as the Normandy Park regulations go, but it's legal."

Helen Kludt, author of a book on local history, lives nearby in a French country house set on several flowering acres of Brown's old claim. She dismisses the massive building with a shrug.

"They tore down a 1939 house with an enclosed pool to build it. It's too bad the other house wasn't designated as an historical house -- it was a very lovely home, with a clear view," says Kludt.

"It doesn't fit -- there hasn't been one person that hasn't looked at that house who was happy with it."

But neither has anyone come forward with a legal challenge against a structure that would qualify as a mega-house on the Eastside.

To do so wouldn't be the Normandy Park way, according to city manager Merlin MacReynold.

The reason is aesthetics, the same concept that prompted developers to build the community in the first place.

"That's part of the appeal of this community," says MacReynold as he drives past brick tudors, wooden ranch houses and even a concrete block house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. "It has an eclectic look. There's really nothing cookie cutter about it here."