Hidely-ho, neighboreno!
Posted on 02/28/2007 9:38:13 AM PST by SmithL
CARMEL, Calif. - The city cannot get rid of Carmel's historic Flanders mansion.
Reversing a City Council decision to sell the mansion, Superior Court Judge Robert O'Farrell ruled the city must keep and maintain it.
"It's a great victory for the movement for the preservation" Flanders Foundation member Melanie Billig said Tuesday.
The city scheduled a closed council meeting this week to discuss the future of Flanders. Councilman Gerard Rose declined comment.
The council decided in 2005 that selling the mansion to a private party would provide the city with revenue while putting the house in hands that could properly care for the deteriorating building.
Preservationists sued saying the city could lease the property rather than sell it.
The court ruled that selling Flanders would violate the California Environmental Quality Act, state law and Carmel's municipal code.
Built in 1925, the Hatton Road mansion is one of two Carmel properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's within the boundaries of the Mission Trail Nature Preserve.
so rather than have it properly cared for by some private individual, the city will spend more and more taxpayers dollars onit whilst it slowly deteriorates.
Purty.
Sign up for green optional electricity and install energy saving bulbs and all is well!
I'm all for preserving historical buildings, but not at taxpayer expense, and certainly not if the building is falling down.
We had a situation here in my little suburb where there was this old hotel that was basically falling apart -- the state wanted to buy the place and take the land to build an interchange. But some preservationists fought and won the legal battle to keep the dang old hotel intact. The state ultimately decided that to go around the old hotel would be too costly; so the interchange was never built. And the old hotel is still there, slowly falling apart. Of course, the preservationists who fought to keep the hotel aren't maintaining the property, and the taxpayers balked at fixing it also. It's a major eyesore.
Anyone know a good arsonist? :)
What took you so long?
Now I don't see why the mansion is in disrepair. Isn't there a public/private partnership to maintain it?
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