Redlands Preservationists Draw Battle Lines : Heritage: Group says the soul of the city is at stake as a church plans to raze 7 old houses. The City Council says property owner has a right to do what it wants.

In the early 1900s, Redlands stood out for its sprawling orange groves, breathtaking views of snowcapped peaks, and immaculate neighborhoods of Victorian mansions, Queen Anne cottages and California bungalows.

Since those glory years, urban growth has pushed the fragrant blossoms to the edge of town and a dense blanket of smog has crept in to cloud the view. Now, some residents worry that the hundreds of turn-of-the-century homes gracing the downtown area are endangered.

The battle at hand is a request by a neighborhood church, which needs more parking and classroom space, to knock down seven houses built between 1891 and 1920. Leaders of the 200-member Save Old Architectural Redlands, which has filed a lawsuit to prevent demolition, say what is truly at stake is the soul of the city.

Over the years, they say, Redlands has maintained an image of a latter-day “Our Town”--a community where pink banners still drape the porches of working-class bungalows to announce the arrival of a baby girl; where hundreds of Boy Scouts from across the Southland gather each February to lay a wreath at the only shrine to Abraham Lincoln west of the Mississippi, and where tourists flock to visit such mansions as Kimberly Crest, an 1897 French chateau decorated by Tiffany of New York.

If the church-owned structures fall, the preservationists say, it could be interpreted as a green light for other landowners and developers. Eventually, SOAR fears, the entire sylvan-laced downtown neighborhood--and much of the city’s charm--could be at risk.

“This is architecture that gives a community a sense of identity which is missing in tract housing,” said SOAR assistant chairman Gary Heroneme, a home rebuilder. “And it’s stayed so pure for so long.”

Besides battling the church, SOAR is pitted against the Redlands City Council, whose composition has changed significantly since the mid-1980s, when it instituted one of the state’s first historic preservation ordinances to protect old houses from demolition.

Earlier this month, Redlands and San Diego were the only cities statewide singled out for 1991 Governor’s Historic Preservation Awards--in Redlands’ case for its preservation ordinance and for having completed a $4-million renovation of its 93-year-old downtown public library with municipal funds.

In a 4-0 vote last month, council members agreed to issue a demolition permit to the Sacred Heart Church, telling an overflow crowd that they believed the church had the right to do whatever it wanted with its property. In an interview, Mayor Charles G. DeMirjyn indicated that he takes no pride in the city’s longtime standing as a preservationist’s paradise.

“When you get right down to image, I don’t really care about it,” said DeMirjyn, a 26-year council member. “The streets are too narrow for people to drive up and down--they were designed for horse and buggy.

“We have to have people live in nice, healthy comfortable ways. I don’t think these houses are comfortable. . . . Let me tell you, it’s pretty cold living in those houses--they’re old and drafty and need all kinds of repairs.”

Of the Governor’s Award, DeMirjyn chuckled and said: “I think we’ve got some nice houses but I think that they’re not up to snuff. . . . If the governor thinks they’re so nice, fine. . . . (But) if he’d concentrate on helping out the schools, where we really need the help he can give, maybe he’d be better off.”

The seven homes in question, which have “No Trespassing” signs on their boarded-up windows, appear to be in need of extensive repairs.

“The church has let the properties go in recent years because they fully intended to demolish them,” said Paul Foster, chairman of the city’s Historic and Scenic Preservation Commission. Church officials, citing the pending litigation, refused to comment.

The small, modest structures are about five blocks from the central business district, on two side streets behind Sacred Heart and four other churches--an intersection known locally as The Lord’s Corner. They are also across the street from the five-home Eureka Street Historic District--one of seven such districts in the city--and near a flourishing medical center which, like Sacred Heart, is in need of parking space.

A decade ago, portions of the neighborhood had fallen into disrepair. But young couples, lured by its character and safety and prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000, have spruced up many of the houses.

Now, on weekday afternoons, the only obvious signs of the 1990s are the ages of most cars in the street (many with community-oriented bumper stickers such as “My Kid Made Honor Roll”) and the neon-colored T-shirts worn by youngsters strolling home from school.

A recent staff report for the city’s Historic and Scenic Preservation Commission put it this way:

“The neighborhood is remarkable because it is largely intact. It is possible that it may be the largest neighborhood of its kind still remaining in Southern California. It is as significant for the architecture and history of Redlands as the . . . landmark mansions.”

SOAR’s lawsuit, likely to be heard in San Bernardino Superior Court next month, demands that the demolition permit be overturned because the church engaged in an alleged sleight of hand to avoid preparing an environmental impact report.

When church officials sought a demolition permit last year, their plan called for the homes--which include a pair of matching Victorian cottages, a two-story gable roof and a California bungalow--to be replaced by a turf playground and a paved parking lot. As a result of the land-use changes, city officials ordered the church to prepare an environmental review.

Instead of doing so, the church withdrew its demolition application and filed a new one this year stating it had no plans for the demolished property. Without a new property use to review, the application was approved by the City Council without an environmental review.

SOAR contends that the church has skirted the California Environmental Quality Act, which prohibits projects from being split into parts to avoid environmental scrutiny.

“You don’t get to look at the demolition separate and apart from new construction when it’s part of one project,” said William F. Delvac, a Los Angeles historic rehabilitation attorney serving as co-counsel for SOAR.

To some, such as DeMirjyn, the matter is one of property rights.

“If the (church wants) to extend their school it’s their perfect right--they bought the houses,” the mayor said. “The church is growing and I don’t look at it too kindly when someone is trying to inhibit their growth.

“If those people want to preserve these old things,” he said, “then why aren’t they driving Model T cars?”

“I could point out a few Model Ts in the neighborhood,” home rebuilder Heroneme responded.

Other city officials say the question is a much closer call.

“If these houses were the only examples of these types of architecture in the city, I would have a real hard time supporting the church’s plans (but) . . . we have many homes like this throughout the city of Redlands,” said Foster of the preservation commission, which recently stayed the demolition permit for 90 days but refused to declare the homes historically significant.

“The church has been there a very long time, too; it’s been a cornerstone of the downtown area and has been an integral part of the neighborhood.”

Preservationists acknowledge that the seven homes do not approach the style or cachet of the city’s most elegant mansions, which once served as serene vacation homes for powerful East Coast industrialists.

But they contend that each home has its own sense of historic identity and that demolition would have a negative effect on the neighborhood.

Consequently, SOAR has also launched a petition drive to establish a 20-block Smiley Park residential historic district that would provide added protection for about 300 downtown homes, the recently renovated Moorish-style A. K. Smiley Public Library, and the Redlands Bowl, site of twice-weekly summer evening concerts.

If the church’s demolition permit is overturned, an environmental review would explore alternatives to knocking down the homes. At that point, SOAR Chairman Jon Harrison said, relocation of some of the houses could be a compromise.

“But before we give carte blanche to relocate all seven houses, we could look at how they could be a part of a solution to keep a residential feel to the area,” said Harrison.

At a Glance: The City of Redlands

INCORPORATED: 1888 LOCATION: In San Bernardino County, just southeast of the city of San Bernardino. POPULATION: 60,394 ETHNIC BREAKDOWN: Anglo, 43,779; Latino, 11,450; Asian, 2,488; Black, 2,207. ECONOMY: Once dubbed “The Navel Orange Capital of the World,” Redlands is now the home to a predominantly white-collar technical, sales and service work force. Major employers include the Redlands Unified School District, Redlands Community Hospital and the Environmental Systems Research Institute, a computer mapping firm. AVERAGE FAMILY INCOME: $31,547 HISTORY: Named for the color of its fertile soil, Redlands quickly became a prime orange growing area and a popular resort destination. At the turn of the century, Eastern industrialists built fanciful mansions as winter and retirement homes, many of which remain today. LANDMARKS: A.K. Smiley Public Library, an ornate, 93-year-old Moorish-style edifice with gargoyles, carved oak fixtures and stained-glass windows.

Redlands Bowl, an outdoor amphitheater where twice-weekly summer evening concerts are held.

Lincoln Memorial Shrine, one of the best collections of Lincoln memorabilia in the country.

Kimberly Crest, a 94-year-old French chateau decorated by Tiffany for its early owner, J.A. Kimberly of the Kimberly-Clark paper fortune.

Holt House, a Mission Revival home with an arched arcade.

Morey House, one of the Southland’s best-known Victorians, with a curved tower crowned by a folded onion dome. CURRENT ISSUE: A battle over the possible demolition of seven turn-of-the-century houses in downtown Redlands is pitting the preservationist group Save Old Architectural Redlands against the Sacred Heart Church and the Redlands City Council.