Palo Alto OKs demolition of city's oldest home
The City of Palo Alto has agreed to issue a demolition permit for the city's oldest home after losing a nine-year legal tussle.
Preservation groups and city officials had sought to maintain the 160-year-old building known as the Juana Briones House, built by one of California's early settlers, which is to be leveled and could make way for a luxury home.
After a trial court and appeals court both ruled that the city's heritage ordinance was unenforceable, Planning Director Steve Emslie issued a letter Wednesday to property owners Jaim Nulman and Avelyn Welczer saying they "should immediately be granted a demolition permit pursuant to their original application."
Before demolition begins, the owners have agreed to allow the Juana Briones Historical Foundation to have an architect and photographer survey the property and home.
The couple has also agreed to have a Stanford faculty member videotape the house at 4155 Old Adobe Road and to donate an existing wall plaque and photographs of the house to the foundation, Emslie notes in the letter. Foundation members will also be allowed to take cuttings from select native plants on the property and remove some stones from the entry wall to be used in a plaque that may be housed at a nearby park.
The tamped-earth adobe home was built in built in 1847, and two wooden wings were added at the turn of the century. Nulman and Welczer bought the 1 1/2-acre property in 1997 and filed for a demolition permit a year later.
Kent Mitchell, an attorney representing the couple, said the home was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and repairs would be prohibitively expensive, totaling $800,000 to $1.5 million. He also said it was inconclusive whether Briones, who owned a huge swath of land in the area, ever lived in the home
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