Rose Garden Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Former Gem: The 87-year-old eclectic Colonial Revival house at 744 Morse St. is listed on San Jose's Historic Resources Inventory as a structure of merit and eligible for the California Register of Historic Places. Developers David and Clyde LeBaron and Mark De Mattei plan to restore the home.

Home Extinction

Warren Hansen fights to keep Wright Mansion

By Mary Gottschalk

Can one man stop new home development in the Rose Garden? Warren Hansen hopes so.

For more than four decades, Hansen and his family have lived across the street from 744 Morse St., the house he calls the Whitney Wright Mansion in honor of the man who lived there from 1949 until his death in 2005.

Hansen has watched the house and property in good times and as it deteriorated along with Wright's health over the years.

Now, Hansen is looking at a chain link fence and green tarps blocking pedestrian-level views of the property.

He's also locked in what some view as a quixotic battle with brothers David and Clyde LeBaron and Mark De Mattei, who all grew up on Morse, one block away. They purchased the property in September 2005 for $1.2 million after it had been on the market for a year. Hansen is collecting signatures to stop them from relocating the home to another location on the property and building two more homes on the site-- a move he and neighbors call "extinction" of the property.

Planned Improvements

The trio initially planned to tear down the house and build new homes on the site, as did other developers bidding on the property.

However, after preliminary discussions with the San Jose Planning Department, they learned the 87-year-old eclectic Colonial Revival house is listed on San Jose's Historic Resources Inventory as a structure of merit and eligible for the California Register of Historic Places.

"We convinced them that the house was worth saving, and if they weren't going to preserve the house, they wouldn't get staff or community support," says Erin Morris, a senior planner.

After that, David LeBaron says, "We decided it would be in our best interests to try and save it, even at an exorbitant cost."

To make the project financially feasible, they entered into an agreement with the Central YMCA to trade a parcel of land the Y owns next to 744 Morse for a strip across the back of the lot.

As part of the agreement, the developers will put in 22 new onsite parking spaces on the Y property.

"This should help reduce street parking and traffic along The Alameda, Emory, Morse and Naglee," LeBaron says.

With the additional 77.5-foot-wide strip of land, LeBaron says, they will have room to move the 3,250-square-foot Wright home and build two similarly sized houses on the lot.

To proceed, LeBaron and his partners must obtain rezoning approval, changing the site from single family to planned development.

Opposition to their plans surfaced dramatically at a community meeting in November that attracted close to 40 neighbors, flinging accusations in raised voices.

The intensity was a shock to the LeBarons and De Mattei, who are still residents of the Rose Garden.

Morris, who was on hand for the meeting, stepped in and kept most of the discussion on a civil level.

Following the meeting, the developers made significant changes to their proposed plans.

Changed Plans

They moved the proposed new site for the Wright home back 5 feet to preserve a tall deodar cedar and moved the walkway around it. The house would sit 30 feet back from the street.

In response to suggestions that the Wright house should sit on a larger lot, they reallocated space so that lot would be 63 feet wide and 130 feet deep. The other two homes would sit on lots 57.25 by 130 feet.

They also moved proposed driveways so all three homes would have driveways to the right.

Additionally, they reduced the square footage of the two proposed homes by 10 percent, from 3,569 to 3,219 square feet.

"It doesn't hurt us to do this if it makes people happy," says De Mattei. "We're all neighbors, and our intent is to do the right thing."

LeBaron agrees, saying, "We certainly care about the neighborhood."

One of the most dramatic concessions they made was to Rawley Douglas, who lives next door.

"The house at 760 was originally a Tuscan design. Rawley requested we change it, so now it's a Monterey Colonial," LeBaron says.

Douglas says he did make the request, but adds, "until I see an actual rendition of it, a blueprint or a mock drawing, talk is cheap. I'm not saying it's bait and switch, but until I see evidence of it, I'm not endorsing the project."

Douglas says his preference is for either Tudor or Craftsman-style homes that have the look and feel of the rest of the neighborhood.

Neighbors' suggestions that the project be scaled back to restoration of the Whitney house and just one new home isn't financially feasible, say the developers.

The trees on the property are also a concern to neighbors.

Walking around the property, it's difficult to distinguish many of the trees from overgrown bushes, including several privet shrubs.

The developers have identified 10 trees visible to passersby on Morse.

Under the current proposal, two of the trees would be removed, including a redwood because of its location.

City arborist Ralph Mize has inspected the property, and Morris says he found the redwood to be nice, but not an old redwood.

Mize found the cedar impressive because of its age and general condition.

Douglas says he'd like to see the redwood go because its roots have traveled under his lawn and are uprooting his sprinkler system.

The fate of the palm trees is still up in the air.

The developers say they will leave them if the new homeowners want them, or they are willing to relocate them or give them to someone who wants them.

LeBaron says they plan to do extensive landscaping to the property.

The trees now at the rear of the property, which would be deeded to the Y, would be removed for the parking spaces.

Detached garages in the back of the lots, acoustical walls and new landscaping will create a sound buffer, say the developers.

Neighborhood Opposition

The LeBarons and De Mattei say they were surprised when they heard Hansen and 17 other neighbors gathered at the home of Janet Gray Hayes, around the corner from 744 Morse, on Jan. 30 to discuss ways to fight the project.

Hayes says she's opposed to the project because "it's bad for the neighborhood. I think three houses is too much."

Like many others opposed to the project, Hayes says, "Warren speaks for us."

At the meeting, the group drafted a petition that reads:

"The beautiful Whitney Wright property located at 744 Morse St. is threatened with extinction! A proposed project seeks to rezone the property, relocate the existing residence at the site, provide additional parking for the YMCA, and allow construction of two new single-family homes."

Attorney Bob Harmssen, who lives on Emory Street, says, "I helped draft the petition and toned it down a bit.

"I don't really favor the project, but I'm not taking an active role in the opposition. I'm a friend of the De Matteis. I'm trying to facilitate a dialogue between the parties."

The wording of the petition is distressing to the LeBarons and De Mattei, particularly the use of the word extinction.

"The house is not threatened with extinction," De Mattei says.

"We've promised to restore it. We're trying to be accommodating to the neighborhood. They've excluded us. We want to work with them, but it can't be all or nothing."

Harmssen says, "Extinction is something that exists and will be lost permanently. It would be the property facing extinction.

"The nature of the site is its graciousness. For me that is the house in the Rose Garden. My wife and I think of that as the most beautiful, intriguing house in the Rose Garden."

In fact, Harmssen says he tried to obtain an option to buy the property several years ago when Wright was still alive.

Wright didn't agree and when the property did go on the market, Harmssen says it was too late as he'd already invested in other property.

Had he been successful, Harmssen says he would have restored the home and kept the property as it is.

In the first three weeks of circulating the petition, Hansen says they have gathered about 380 signatures.

Douglas says he hasn't signed the petition, but his wife has.

Some of the people circulating the petition and signing it say they don't want their names used because they don't want to offend De Mattei or the LeBarons.

The names will become public record when Hansen presents the petition to the planning commission, as he plans to do when the development comes before the city in late March.

"If we can shoot that zoning down, they're dead in the woods," Hansen says.

If Hansen is successful, the next step is unknown.

Hansen says, "There's a lot of dot-com money out there," and perhaps someone would buy the property and restore it and the house.

De Mattei points out that the property sat on the market for over a year, and no one expressed interest in it for restoration.

Walking through the house, it's easy to see why.

Deteriorating Condition

The floors slope down from the center of the house as the foundation under it has crumbled. Eaves have rotted away. Water damage resulting from leaks and broken windows is plentiful. Mold is visible in some rooms, and one of the upstairs bedrooms has ivy growing in through the window and wall.

Restoration of the home to secretary of the interior standards, which the developers have promised to do, will cost at least $1 million, if not more.

LeBaron says other developers have asked about buying the property, and all have expressed the desire to build multiple homes.

De Mattei says, "We're building houses with old world character. If another builder did this, it would not be old world. The neighbors should be pleased we're taking this on."

Morris says any developer wanting to build a planned community of multiple houses will face the same opposition to tearing the house down from both the city and community.

However, it is possible for a developer to obtain a demolition and building permit for a new single-family home of a much larger size on that site.

As long as the plans are in keeping with San Jose's codes and guidelines, there is nothing to stop it, Morris says.

The first public hearing on the house and property at 744 Morse St. will be before the Historic Landmarks Commission at 6 p.m. March 7 in Room 118/119 of city hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St. Following that, it is tentatively scheduled to go before the planning commission on March 28 and the city council on April 17.