SAN CLEMENTE : No Takers for Ugly but Historic Hut
The owner thinks the home at 117 Santa Ana Lane is an ugly, poorly constructed “two-room shack” that’s fit to be torn down. The city, however, looks beyond the cracks in the stucco and sees the historical beauty of the 64-year-old structure.
Now faced with a city-imposed, 90-day moratorium on demolition, owner Anne Stanbrook is trying to give the house away to someone who will move and restore it.
“If someone takes it off me, it would save me money. . . . It’s going to cost me money to demolish it,” said Stanbrook, who bought the property a year ago to build condominiums on the land. “If the city would like to take it for a bathroom, it’s just about the right size,” she added, referring to a comment made in jest at a City Council meeting last week that the city needs a public restroom in the pier area.
Stanbrook’s application earlier this year for a demolition permit was halted by the Community Design Commission’s objection to destroying the property.
Commissioners, responsible for preserving the historical integrity of the city, said it was one of about 100 historic structures, called Ole Hanson houses, that reflect the city founder’s vision for a Spanish village by the sea. The house’s architecture is of the Spanish colonial style.
The City Council on Wednesday followed the commission’s recommendation to stay the demolition project for 90 days while directing Stanbrook to advertise for a new owner.
And although she is eager to build, Stanbrook said she won’t fight the city. “I don’t blame them. If it was an old Spanish house, I would love to have remodeled it. But I’ve been a real estate broker for 30 years, and I know what can be added to. . . . It’s too far gone to be remodeled.”
The 646-square-foot house is 10 inches higher at one end than the other, Stanbrook said. In addition, the roof leaks and the foundation is cracked.
Engineers say the house is “unstable and unsafe for human occupancy” and should be demolished. “It’s just really an old house that’s slipping off the hill. It’s very unsafe,” Stanbrook said.
Despite the condition, she has rented it to tenants from out of state for about seven months. “I don’t think I’d worry about the house falling in on me. I’d just be uneasy about the ugliness of it and it being on an angle.”
Since she began advertising the house a month ago, only one person has come forward, but was not able to have the structure moved, Stanbrook said.
If she has no takers in 90 days, Stanbrook will be free to make room for the condominiums, which she said will truly reflect Hanson’s dream for a Spanish village by the sea.
