A Palo Alto homeowner succeeded Monday in convincing elected officials to remove his 117-year-old home from the city's historic inventory.The home's removal from the inventory will make it easier for Pickett to remodel or rebuild.
The decision settled a sharp difference of opinion between city staff and the Historic Resources Board, a panel of citizens appointed to advise the council on matters such as reclassifying buildings on the inventory. The home was listed as a Category 4, the lowest designation.
City staff concluded that the home had lost its historic integrity based on its own analysis and a "historic resource evaluation" Pickett commissioned from San Francisco-based Garavaglia Architectural Inc. The firm is one of five approved by the city to do such studies.
Using the city's own historic preservation ordinance and criteria set by the National Park Service, Garavaglia determined the home had lost its integrity through changes such as a substantial redesign of the original roof, alteration of the entire rear façade, and replacement of every historic window and door.
"Ninety percent of the home's exterior is new," Pickett said during an interview in his living room just hours before the council meeting.
The Garavaglia analysis was peer-reviewed by another city-approved firm, Page & Turnbull, which supported its conclusions.
The Historic Resources Board based its position that the house should remain part of the inventory on the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Chairman Martin Bernstein said those guidelines reflect the spirit of the ordinance, which exists to encourage preservation.
From the street, Bernstein told the council Monday, the one-and-a-half-story home still largely resembled the Queen Anne cottage that professional architectural historians John Beach and Paul Boghosian observed when they compiled the historic inventory between 1978 and 1979.
But council members said the opinions of Garavaglia and Page & Turnbull, as well as city staff, were more convincing.
"With all due respect to the Historic Resources Board," Council Member Larry Klein said, "they're not composed of experts."
Pickett said he and his wife were unaware of the home's historic designation when they bought it in 2007. They were attracted by its proximity to downtown and their adopted children's school.
It wasn't until they set out to remodel the master bathroom that they learned it was on the list.
"The historic inventory should mean something," Pickett said. "If houses don't meet the threshold, they shouldn't be on it."
Pickett said he has run the numbers on remodeling and rebuilding and is leaning toward the latter at this point.
"On balance," he said, "if it's going to cost the same amount of money and time, why wouldn't you do it?"
Email Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com.
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