The Willow Glen Resident

Council Watch

City appeals board slaps Willow Glen man with $4,032 fine

Local homeowner renovated house without permits, inspectors say

By Cecily Barnes

Willow Glen homeowner Greg Schatzel was fined $4,032 by the San Jose Hearing Appeals Board Jan. 22 for renovating his home without the proper permits and then failing to respond to compliance orders sent by the city.

According to the board's ruling, Schatzel must submit professionally drawn plans to the city by Feb. 6. and complete all work by Mar. 20. If he does not, he will be fined up to $250 for each day he does not comply.

"You're talking about somebody who violated a permit regulation and did this without good faith. The restructuring of homes is something Mr. Schatzel does for a living," said appeals board commissioner Anastasia Steinberg.

"Based on that and based on the fact that there had been a 'stop work' order that had been ignored, that's why penalties were imposed. It took a significant amount of time from the department to work on this case; that's taxpayers' money."

According to code enforcement supervisor Mike Hannon, Schatzel was given several opportunities to resolve the violations without taking the matter to the board. Instead, he says, Schatzel denied code-enforcement officers access to his property and failed to meet the conditions of first a compliance order and then the "stop work" order.

"In this case, we did an inspection, we sent an order and we gave him a date to accomplish these things by," Hannon said. "He did not comply with that deadline."

Schatzel has a different version of the story. While he could not be reached for comment the day after the meeting, he spent nearly 45 minutes at the hearing explaining how he had acted in good faith.

"I'm not as bad as I'm made out to be," Schatzel told the commission. "They say I acted in bad faith or I didn't act at all. I find it to be the opposite."

In his defense, Schatzel submitted two letters he had written to the city expressing his desire to comply. He also explained that he had attempted to contact code enforcement on numerous occasions and did not receive return phone calls.

The trouble began in July 1997 when Schatzel purchased the property at 471 Minnesota Ave. from Angelo Fracchia. Schatzel wanted to make changes to the three-bedroom, two-bathroom residence, such as adding stucco to the outside facade and building a 7-foot-high fence.

On July 31, a neighbor called the city to complain about Schatzel's renovations. Hannon and code enforcement inspector Cindi Gil-Blanco went to the residence on Aug. 6, only to find a construction crew, a large dumpster and building activity in progress.

It appeared to Hannon and Gil-Blanco that work was being done on the foundation, a project that requires a building permit.

When contacted, Schatzel agreed to obtain the necessary permits. He never did.

"The owner continued to work even though a 'stop work' order had been issued," Hannon said.

According to Hannon, most compliance cases are handled on an informal basis and do not need to go before the appeals board.

"In most cases, people are going to get the order, and they're going to do whatever is required of them to get the issue corrected before it goes to the board," Hannon said. "We issue hundreds and hundreds of compliance orders, and 95 to 99 percent of these cases get resolved [before a hearing is called]. We don't want to go before the board; we want to resolve things before it gets there."

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