By Kathleen Acuff
 The Foothill-De Anza Community College District voted unanimously Aug. 1 to demolish the Griffin House on the Foothill campus. |
The Friends of the Griffin House served a lawsuit on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District late Thursday afternoon, challenging the district’s environmental impact report for the project that includes razing the historic house on the Foothill College campus. The Friends filed suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court Aug. 30.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) mandates that public agencies analyze the impact of construction or demolition on a site’s immediate environment. The Friends claim that the district’s analysis violated CEQA requirements and the California Uniform Building Code.
Mike Brandy, the district’s vice chancellor of business services, said Friday that in the past year the district retained the services of experts to conduct the environmental impact analysis and of legal counsel to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, “and we’re satisfied that we’re in full compliance.”
If the district loses the case, it will have to conduct another environmental impact study.
The Friends have retained well-known preservation attorneys Susan Brandt-Hawley and Paige Swartley of Glen Ellen to pursue their case. Swartley, who has a master’s degree in historic preservation planning and is a member of the California Preservation Foundation, said last week that they seek a ruling that the college district “set aside and void all approvals of the project” to demolish the Griffin House and “adopt the feasible alternative of repairing” the dilapidated, century-old building.
Swartley pointed to the former Douglass Hall, now the Stent Family Hall, on the Menlo School campus as a preservationist’s success story. The town of Atherton decided in 1993 to raze the structure, which was built around 1911 and vacated in 1991. Brandt-Hawley won a court decision for the Friends of Douglass Hall to prevent demolition. In 1995, the Douglass Hall Committee, comprising members from both sides of the issue, resolved to restore the building and add classrooms and a library. A strong fund-raising effort enabled the school to carry out the plan.
Brandy said district administrators and legal counsel will meet in closed session to brief trustees on the lawsuit, but “right now, we’re proceeding with our plans.” He said the district will have to “redirect dollars from educational purposes to legal costs.”
Asked whether Measure E funds could be used for the purpose, Brandy said all those funds are allocated and the district cannot reallocate money budgeted for other capital-fund projects. In addition, the costs of operating a restored Griffin House would have to come out of the general fund, he said.
Brandy said the district is “extremely pressed for maintenance funds” and cannot afford to maintain the old wooden building.
But there are issues other than costs, he added. The building is no longer a residence and must be made to conform with state requirements for public buildings, including seismic and accessibility standards. Best use of land is another big issue for the district, he said. Any new building on the Foothill campus will be on land needed for parking, he said.
Swartley said federal, state and local incentives and regulations apply to historical properties. “We’re hoping we’ll find there really are options,” she said.
Doug Aikins, the district’s attorney in the case, said the court cannot compel the district to reverse its decision or preserve the house. “All the petitioners can do is impose additional costs on a taxpayer-funded agency,” he said.
“Preservation of this house represents the hobby interests of a very small group of people. To impose that fascination with old houses on a public agency … is an inversion of the district’s interests that is completely inappropriate,” he said.
Aikins said that CEQA cases are usually resolved within six months and that the district will press for a prompt resolution.
