Monte Sereno says no to considering another look at preservation list

Neighbors turn out in force to oppose a change in rules

Hawkes, Nesbet dissented

By Nathan R. Huff

If there's one thing that will draw residents of sleepy Monte Sereno to City Hall, it's any item relating to property rights.

Monte Sereno citizens flowed out the open council chamber doors, craning their necks and peering through windows on April 18, as resident after resident spoke against reopening Monte Sereno's volunteer-based historic preservation ordinance.

By a 2-2 vote, council members responded to the often raucous audience, left the ordinance as is and dropped a later agenda item to consider a moratorium on the demolition of any pre-1950 building. Councilman Jack Lucas was absent from the meeting.

The council considered revisiting the 1997 ordinance, which made registering a home on the town's historical inventory the choice of the property owner. Prior to 1997, a stronger preservation ordinance was in place, that made the council the final arbiter on a property's historic designation.

The historic preservation committee brought the issue to the council's attention after a property with an 1890s Victorian home was put on the market, and advertised as a possible opportunity for new construction.

But residents, spurred to action by an anonymous letter that warned of adverse effects on property values, overwhelmingly rejected the idea of any strengthening in the preservation ordinance. Prior to opening the matter for public discussion, audience members pressured the council to conduct a straw poll, which showed more than a seven-to-one ratio opposing a change.

Elizabeth Ross, the owner of the Victorian for the past 37 years, said she felt "injured" by having her home drawn into the political process. She asked the council to let her finish the sale of her home and live in peace.

"[The house] has it's charm, but it's not the kind of house a young family wants to live in," Ross said. "Far be it from me to tell a buyer what to do with the house."

While Mayor Suzanne Jackson stated that the Ross home would not be affected either way since it was already in escrow, other residents expressed more general reservations about changing the ordinance. Most focused on what they perceived as a threat to both property rights and property values.

"The fact that the council would consider implementing such a draconian ordinance--there is no doubt in my mind that it will impact property values," resident Greg Galanof said.

Other Monte Serenans questioned why an issue they thought was dead had been resurrected. "Why is this being brought up again," asked Ellen Brown, whose home is on a list of houses the town considers historic but does not have on the historic inventory. "It's more important that people [in Monte Sereno] like each other than have a pretty house to look at."

Several in the audience spoke on behalf of historic preservation, including one woman who had added onto her historic home under both the former and current ordinances. Others said the town was in danger of destroying all its links to the past and becoming just another Silicon Valley suburb.

Saying that many of the large, new homes in the city were "banal," historian Virginia Jansen said maintaining historic homes kept history alive. "It's the historic ones that have character," Johnson said. "It's a character that reflect people's lives and how they've grown up."

Preservationists had the support of two of the four council members, former heritage commissioner Fred Hawkes and vice-mayor Barbara Nesbet.

"I knew a lot of people would come out enthusiastically against historic preservation," Hawkes later said of his "baptism by fire" during his first council meeting. Last week, Hawkes was appointed to the seat vacated by Joel Gambord's resignation. "But people should think about something in the community interest as well as the personal interest; you have to do both," he said.

Hawkes added that he would not support spending any city money to buy or maintain historical properties. He said the Mills Act, a tax break for owners of historic homes, already offered an incentive.

Mayor Suzanne Jackson and councilman Gordon Knight supported the majority of the audience, leading to the 2-2 vote and the end of the matter, for now.

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