Lush Estate’s Boosters Win Key Bout in Access Fight
Georgia O’Keeffe visited. So did Cole Porter when he had business in Hollywood. But the public has yet to get past the front gates of the famed Val Verde estate in Montecito.
Still, a judge’s ruling is giving new hope that average joes may soon get a look at one of the most gorgeous gardens in America.
Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge J. William McLafferty took the county Board of Supervisors to task last month for closing the estate to the public, finding that supervisors based the decision on personal feelings, not evidence.
The seven-year battle over the future of the 17-acre landmark continues, but preservationists are delighted.
“This is a beautiful place and should be a treasure for everyone,” said Gail Jansen, executive director of the Val Verde Foundation. “We either preserve it or lose it.”
Opponents, who include wealthy celebrities and business owners, say that’s bunk. Nobody wants to destroy Val Verde, they say. They just don’t want more traffic hazards and noise in their upscale, leafy neighborhood.
“All you have to do is go out there,” said neighbor Sander Vanocur, a former NBC News correspondent. “You can see the accidents.”
The fight over Val Verde began in 1994, when Dr. Warren Austin announced plans to turn his estate over to a foundation that would open it to public tours.
The proposal quickly became entangled in one of Santa Barbara’s legendary turf wars.
Preservationists say the battle is worth fighting. Hanging in the balance, they say, is the future of a Gilded Age landmark that has changed little since it played host to artists such as O’Keeffe and Porter.
Built in 1915, Val Verde was the work of architect Bertram Goodhue, a respected cathedral builder who also designed the Los Angeles Central Library. One bedroom suite was laid out by a set designer for the Metropolitan Opera, and interior doors came from Mexican monasteries and convents dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries.
Although the house is impressive, it is the terraced gardens that have won Val Verde renown. At one time containing the largest collection of rare and exotic trees in the Western Hemisphere, they still boast 85 varieties of palm trees.
Besides being named one of the nation’s most influential landscapes, the site is a county and state landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. An early owner was Wright Luddington, who endowed the Santa Barbara Art Museum with its Greek and Roman collection.
In 1955, Heath Horton Austin, an heir to the Chicago Bridge and Iron fortune, bought Val Verde as a wedding present for her husband, Dr. Warren Austin, who had been physician to the duchess of Windsor.
The Austins took pains to keep the grounds intact. Warren Austin’s plan, said attorney John Gherini, was for a foundation to take over the estate on his death and open it to the public. “His idea was to keep it low-key and simple so people could continue to enjoy it,” Jansen said.
In 1998 the county Planning Commission gave its approval. Visitors would be limited to 3,340 a year, a smaller number, supporters say, than some estate party-throwers invite over in a 12-month period.
Opponents had protested that Sycamore Canyon Road was dangerous and hired a team of consultants who agreed.
“This is an accident waiting to happen,” Gerd Jordano, whose family is a major food and beverage distributor, told county officials. She said 292 neighbors were opposed to the plan for Val Verde.
Foes also argued that the neighborhood was already doing its cultural part. They pointed out that another lush estate, Lotusland, has already been opened to the public. Not far away are Santa Barbara’s botanical gardens.
Their efforts were rewarded when the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 in 1999 to overrule the Planning Commission and refuse to permit public tours.
Supervisor Naomi Schwartz, whose district includes Montecito, turned away suggestions that she was influenced by the high-wattage campaign to keep Val Verde private. “I have friends and supporters on both sides of the issue,” she said.
But if tongues were wagging after the supervisors’ vote, the e-mails started flying thick and fast after Judge McLafferty threw out the board’s decision and supported the lawsuit filed by the foundation. The judge said that for most of its 80-plus-year existence, Val Verde had been open to invited visitors. He said the environmental impact report found no highway safety problems. And he expressed fears for the future of Val Verde if the supervisors’ decision was allowed to stand.
“As it stands now, neither preservation of, nor public access to, Val Verde may be possible,” he wrote.
Where it goes from here, no one is sure. The board could appeal the judge’s ruling or decide to re-hear the issue. Whatever happens will be too late for Warren Austin. He died in December 1999 without ever knowing the estate’s fate.