Los Gatos Weekly-Times

The gothic-style historic Conley House's days may be numbered

Owner would like to put in office, retail complex

Planners to decide this week

By Clarence Cromwell

The 94-year-old, mustard-colored, carpenter gothic-style cottage next to the Los Gatos Department of Motor Vehicles offices could be replaced with a 6,580-square-foot office and retail building, under a proposal brought to the Planning Commission by the house's new owner.

Michael Shadman, who bought the property at 634 N. Santa Cruz Ave. a few months ago, said his engineers found the historic building so dilapidated that it would be dangerous to anyone who went inside. Nevertheless, members of the historic preservation committee recommended in April that the house be preserved because it represents a unique example of the carpenter-gothic building style and because the house is in a prominent location.

The Planning Commission will decide Aug. 13 whether Shadman can tear down the building and build the new structure.

The 780-square-foot house was built during the late 1800s. Its first recorded owner, someone named Conley, went on county books in 1891.

Planning Commissioner Leonard Pacheco, also a member of the historic committee, praised the house's ornate woodwork, the unique two-paned bay window and its early Victorian flavor."It's the real thing," Pacheco said. "It's probably Almond Grovetype architecture extended across Highway 9."

The building Shadman wants to construct would have 2,030 square feet of ground-level retail shops facing the street. One of them may be a coffee shop, Shadman said. The rear part of the building would partly enclose 25 protected parking spaces. And 4,550 square feet of second-floor office space would cover both the parking and the shops.

"We think it's going to enhance this area quite a bit," Shadman said.

But first, Shadman would have to get rid of the historic Conley House, which he currently rents to longtime tenants.

A report by Applied Engineering of Fremont states that the house is not worth saving, as it would be cheaper to build a new building. The report points to dry rot, termite damage and mismatched siding. It notes that the building lacks a foundation and warns of damage if an earthquake strikes.

Structural engineer Sasson Rajabi wrote that the house would have to be lifted so that a new foundation could be poured, but before that, many of the beams in the house would have to be replaced so that it would not crumble when lifted.

Pacheco said historic matters require a different kind of investigation than the one Shadman paid for. "There are reports and there are reports," Pacheco said.

He said he'd prefer to see an analysis like the one Carey and Co., specialists in historic architecture, wrote about the Buffalo Trading Co. building and Sodaworks building for developer Dave Flick. Firms specializing in historic architecture tend to be the most objective, Pacheco said, whereas engineers might catalog a building's structural faults without weighing historical or architectural value.

Pacheco reversed his position on the Buffalo Building, voting for demolition, after Carey and Co. declared the building not worth saving.

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