Fire Is Out, but Resentment Smolders in La Jolla : Preservation: Co-owner of historic apartment complex damaged in blaze says she’s frustrated over city’s involvement with property.

La Jollan Leslie LeBeau doesn’t know which she rues more: the fire that recently swept through the apartment complex she co-owns near Windansea Beach or the day years ago when the funky, 1920s-era bungalows were declared a city historical site.

Authorities say the $280,000 blaze at the El Pueblo Ribera apartments, which broke out last week in a garage of the Gravilla Street complex, severely damaged three of the six units and is being investigated as arson.

That’s the only thing LeBeau says she knows for sure. She and her partners aren’t certain how they will afford to restore the property, which overlooks the ocean from a hillside just north of La Jolla’s Birdrock area--or even if the city’s historical site board would let them go ahead with any planned rebuilding project.

The problem, she says, is that the buildings--the wood and concrete creations of renowned Austrian architect Rudolf Schindler--are now considered to be among San Diego’s architectural treasures.

For owners like LeBeau, however, that designation has proven more of a curse than a blessing--considering the financial hardships, constant outside meddling and invasion of privacy that they say they have had to endure.

Because of the designation, which came in 1980, almost a decade before she bought the property, she was shunted from one insurance company to the next before being handed a minimal policy covering only $70,000--far less, LeBeau says, than the property’s actual value.

“There is no benefit to being the proud owner of a San Diego historical site--none whatsoever,” she said. “In fact, it’s been nothing but a big headache--like being the captain of a ship with your hands tied to the mast.”

City officials say such claims simply aren’t true. “It’s a lot of baloney,” said Ron Buckley, former historical site board secretary.

There are many tax breaks as well as financial and insurance programs for the owners of such properties, officials say.

While they deny that the city’s historical site board plays Big Brother with owners, they also say that LeBeau and others who purchase such properties should have known full well what responsibilities they faced.

“There’s a difference between people who have owned their homes all along finding out about a historical designation and then being saddled with some new responsibilities,” said William Levin, newly named secretary to the city historical site board. “But people who buy into properties knowing the rules of the game with historical sites--like these people did--well, then that’s a different story.”

This has indeed been a tough year for preserving historical landmarks in La Jolla, city officials acknowledge. Earlier this year, a group of turn-of-the-century cottages known as the Green Dragon Colony were partly torn down by owners before preservationists and the California Coastal Commission received a court order to stop the demolition.

Green Dragon Colony owners cited a lapse in the city’s permit process in initially gaining a judge’s permission to begin demolition. As the buildings sit in disrepair, the matter is being decided in court.

“This is a really difficult time for us,” Buckley said. “You’ve got bulldozers on one side and arsonists on the other. What are you going to do?”

City officials are pushing for a law allowing historically designated buildings to be torn down only if the owners can demonstrate financial hardship, if the property is needed for a public purpose or if it proves to be a hazard.

The proposal is scheduled to be considered by the Planning Commission on Oct. 31, Levin said.

“This apartment fire--I guess it could be considered a hazardous place, if that’s what the final ruling results in,” Levin said. “But, then again, the new law hasn’t been passed yet.”

All of this, LeBeau says, leaves her in a mess.

She and the two other owners, she says, immediately fell in love with the apartments before they bought them in 1988. The architectural design, including a protected patio serving as a possible bedroom, “brought the inside out and sent some of the outside in.”

Of the 12 original bungalows, six are now individually owned, and LeBeau owns the other six. She and co-owner William Rogers, a La Jolla engineer, live in two of the apartments. The third investor, Gerry Nahas, lives in Indonesia, she said.

At the behest of San Diego dentist W. L. Lloyd, the bungalows were built in 1923 by a young Rudolf Schindler, an Austrian architect and apprentice of the great Frank Lloyd Wright.

El Pueblo Rivera, thought to be Schindler’s only work in San Diego, was inspired by the Indian villages of the Southwest. The layout of stark wood and concrete, experts say, makes maximum use of space and the California climate.

“This is a very, very significant historical property,” Buckley said. “Schindler is a demigod in Austria, and this is San Diego’s only work by him. The Austrian government even wrote a letter to our mayor a few years back, expressing concern that we take care of the project.”

In recent years, however, the bungalows have fallen into disrepair, Le Beau said. “We spent tens of thousands trying to get the place back into some kind of shape,” she said. “But the people from the city have been no help at all. All they do is throw rules and regulations at you, invade your privacy.”

If a pane of glass was broken, officials wouldn’t allow her to replace it without their permission, she said. They wouldn’t even let her replace the shrubbery without a battle.

“We knew the places were historical sites when we bought them, but we weren’t aware of all the ramifications,” she said. “I mean, I’ve got tenants. If a window pane breaks, I can’t say, ‘Sorry, kids, I’ve got to go before a board to get permission to get this fixed.’ I just get it fixed.”

When she began running out of money for renovations, LeBeau said, she asked that the board allow her to sell off the apartments individually to allow each owner to meet the city’s specifications.

It was nothing doing, she said.

“And then the fire,” LeBeau said. “Now I’ve got something that’s worthless, a place that’s still under the direction of these people. I cry. I stare at the place, go home and stare at it again. What am I going to do?”

Buckley said he was been to the site several times since the fire to discuss options with the owners. But a final decision won’t be made until after a structural review.

“We’ve bent over backward to help these people, but until a final status report on the condition of those concrete walls, not much can be done,” Levin said. “We’re not the thought police here. We don’t snoop around people’s houses. We don’t go there unless we’re invited.”

Nonetheless, he said, San Diego is taking a more aggressive approach to protecting its architectural treasures--and acquiring new ones. Rather than await offers from owners, officials are now seeking out neighbors and community groups for suggestions on what properties deserve to be designated historical sites.

“If we stood around and waited only for owners to come to us, we wouldn’t have much of a historical legacy here in San Diego left to protect,” Levin said.

Georgiana Chaney, who once owned one of the six Schindler bungalows across the street from El Pueblo Ribera, said she spent more than $100,000 in repairs and renovations before selling the property after frustrating go-rounds with historical officials.

“For a homeowner,” she said, “the historical designation is the kiss of death.”