School and neighbors dispute wall dividing their properties

After two years of silence, Petaluma residents were surprised earlier this year to find a letter on their doorstep courtesy of their neighbor, Bernard Eldredge Elementary School, containing a demand: fix, replace, or remove your fence within 45 days.

Months after the initial deadline passed, the Old Adobe School District and homeowners reached an agreement, with the police department acting as mediator.

The compromise came only after the letter, along with a prolonged period of silence from the school, stirred up anger and confusion among the nine Tahola Lane residents affected by the request.

"If the school had just reached out to the neighbors themselves - like the police did - we could have avoided this whole angry mess," resident Sandor Kiss said.

The wall in question is made of brick and was constructed about 35 years ago, according to city subdivision records. It sits just outside the school's property line - positioned on the residents' lots to release the school from any maintenance requirements or liability.

Bernard Eldredge Elementary School has sat mostly dormant since it closed in 2010. But when voters approved a $26 million bond measure, known as Measure G, in November, the school got new life from $8 million the parcel tax measure raised. Revamped as a dual-immersion school where students will learn in both English and Spanish, the newly named Loma Vista Immersion Academy is set to open in August. With the school year fast approaching and the campus remodel almost complete, the old wall seemed to be an obvious safety hazard to engineers hired by the district.

Throughout the process, the school school appeared to remain blind to the residents' irritation: "We didn't realize the homeowners were so upset with us," said the school's maintenance manager, Pete Tillet. "We were starting our remodel and we had a construction consultant tell us we had some issues - that the wall could come down on a child. It was probably a few weeks later that the letter went out."

Tillet said that after the engineer warned him of the safety hazard, he consulted with the school board and called the City of Petaluma's Code Enforcement Police Officer, Joe Garcia. "Garcia said it would be best (for us) to notify the homeowners. If they don't respond to that, he told us to come back to him and he'd take it from there," said Tillet.

While the school did contact its neighbors, it did so by sending out the letter from its attorney, which many residents felt was abrupt and unneighborly. The correspondence drafted by the school's attorney ended in the following statement: "...The District requests that you either remove the wall or reconstruct the wall and that this work commence in the next 30-45 days."

While the letter clearly outlines the school's concerns, the request incited frustration from the recipients. Finally, after hearing from several angry residents, the police department began consulting with other city officials and held a meeting for Tahola Lane residents on July 10 to discuss the situation. Homeowner Barbara Podsiadly voiced her concerns at the public meeting hosted by Lt. Mike Cook and Garcia.

"It [the letter] wasn't threatening, but it wasn't nice either," said Podsiadly. "It wasn't neighborly at all."

Thanks to help from Cook and Garcia, a proposal was introduced at the meeting to alleviate the tension. The city has agreed to pay $4,000 to remove and dispose of the aging wall, in an effort to avoid costly legal battles with the residents. Meanwhile, the school will build its own chain link fence on its property to replace the wall. Residents will be free to put up their own fences in the future, with their own money. Despite some initial hesitation, many of the Tahola Lane residents were grateful for the help provided by the city.

"Obviously, the proposal they (the police) came up with isn't perfect, but it won't cost us anything," said Podsiadly, who said she was sad to see the old wall - with all its "design character" - come down.

Cook said that all nine Tahola Lane residents must agree to the proposal or it will be invalid. He said the city attorney has the information and is currently drawing up legal documents to execute a formal agreement.

"No matter what the agreement is, everyone is going to not like some small part of it," said Cook. "If we all can't agree, it will be back on the individuals to deal with their portion of the fence. It's like a jury: it's an all or nothing deal."

After realizing how upset residents were at the school's actions, Cook and Garcia held last week's meeting without any school board representation. "We thought it best to try and calm the situation before moving forward," said Cook. "I'm just glad that things are moving forward."

School Board President Cecilie Stuelpe was also relieved at the positive discussion. She admitted that the board had never talked about offering to pay a portion of the residents's wall replacement costs. "No compromise was ever formally discussed by the board, but we want to be a part of any solutions in any way we can be," she said. "We were just interested in getting the situation safe for everybody. It was never our intention to scare or offend anyone."

(Contact Janelle Wetzstein at janelle.wetzstein@arguscourier.com)