Snohomish County News

Historic home removal decision appealed
EVERETT - Historic Everett is leading an appeal against the city’s approval to let the historic home at 1102 Grand Ave. be removed for a larger house.
The nonprofit group and representatives from three historic overlay zones filed the appeal Wednesday, Oct. 26. The appeal will go before the city’s hearing examiner at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 5.
In it, the appellants wrote that planning director Allan Giffen’s decision was “arbitrary,” “capricious” and “a violation of law.” The appellants also argue the architectural design for the proposed new home at 1102 Grand has not gone through a geotechnical report, which to appellants means Giffen approved the plan before it went through every procedural step.
Giffen said he would not comment while the decision is being appealed. The city must approve the geotechnical report, though, before a building permit can be issued, he did say, however.
One question not discussed in the appeal is whether the homeowners genuinely explained their plans for 1102 Grand when they came to the City Council last year.
“Our plan is to completely remodel the house and add a garage on the side of it,” homeowner Harv Jubie said at the Nov. 3, 2010 council meeting.
Harv and Jan Jubie, who run a construction firm, were set to buy 1102 Grand Ave. at the time. To build the garage, they needed the city to sell public land to them to replace a carport there. The sale was controversial as the city land offered one of the last public views of Port Gardner Bay from the bluff.
The council voted 5-2 in April to sell the land.
The land sold for $70,000, city real properties manager Mike Palacios said last week.
At last year’s meeting, Palacios acknowledged that giving up the land could allow a duplex or larger house to be built at 1102 Grand, but the council focused their discussion on the loss of the public’s bluff-side view of Port Gardner Bay.
An attempt to add restrictions on what could be built on the lot was shot down 5-2 by the council.
This year, the Jubies proposed to build a new larger house on the property and move the existing historic home to an unknown location.
Councilman Drew Nielsen, who voted against giving up the land and still objects to the Jubies’ plan, said last week that the council didn’t look at the bigger picture of historic preservation.
“I think it was an assumption he’d only replace the garage,” Nielsen said. “I don’t think we did a good enough job that the neighborhood character would be protected.”
The house is in a historic overlay zone. People who move to the area expect the homes to stay historic, Historic Everett president Valerie Steel said last week.
Neighbors said the new house design barely meets the historic qualities expected in the neighborhood, which rests in the Northwest Neighborhood. Giffen said previously he had to approve the Jubies’ plans because the proposed home met city regulations.
Nielsen said Giffen is reading the code too closely.
“Allan’s view of his constraints and my view of his constraints are different,” said Nielsen, a land use attorney.
When Nielsen was campaigning in the neighborhood, he discovered residents weren’t aware of this discussion and some were upset to hear about the decision.
Giffen’s decision spurred the Historical Commission, an advisory body with no authority, to ask Giffen last month to get the City Council to talk about stricter rules for preserving historic homes. As of last week, the topic is not scheduled to be discussed by the City Council.
Nielsen said he does not expect a review of the code to come before council anytime soon under outgoing Council President Shannon Affholter’s leadership. The council president decides what goes on the council agenda.
“Clearly there were a majority of four council members” who are not interested, Nielsen said, basing his comments on the council’s approval of selling the public land to the Jubies.
Public strategy meeting
Historic Everett will host an appeal strategy meeting Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. at the downtown library.

By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published Nov. 23, 2011