Neighbors fail to block historic home renovation

The 6th Street home remodel, which includes the creation of a subterranean parking garage, drew outrage from some neighbors.|

Owners of a historic downtown home this week received a final seal of approval on their renovation plans, after igniting anger among a handful of neighbors and unleashing a concerted campaign against the project.

City Council voted unanimously Monday night to rebuff the resident-led challenge and allow homeowners Peter and Ginnie Haas to forge ahead with construction on their 115-year-old residence on 6th Street. Approved plans include a subterranean 4,200-square-foot garage space and modifications to the home’s rear porch.

“We’re just really pleased we can now move forward and really concentrate on bringing this whole project to reality,” Peter Haas said Tuesday following the vote. “It was a vote for civility as far as we’re concerned, and to hopefully bring back that neighborly feeling that exists in Petaluma.”

This week’s decision marks the end of the road for the Haas’ disgruntled neighbors, who formed themselves into the five-member group Preserve Petaluma, plastered signs around town to “Stop the Big Dig” and appealed prior project approvals. They contend that the remodel will impede their privacy, create construction noise and disruption, negatively impact their properties’ groundwater and build elements that will create “disharmony with surrounding historic buildings.”

In response, the Haases made several adjustments to their blueprint, including replacing the proposed sunroom with a shorter pergola, changing the direction of back stairs and adding screening to the second floor deck to protect neighbors’ privacy.

Yet over the last few months, the topic reached a fever pitch among neighborhood residents, eliciting mixed strong opinions and culminating in close to 80 public comments in advance of Monday night’s meeting.

Preserve Petaluma appealed the July project approval by the city’s Historic and Cultural Preservation Committee, punting the contentious project to city hall chambers for a final decision.

A few council members addressed the tenor of the controversy, expressing concern over the magnitude of the dispute.

“I do understand the directly-related neighbors have concerns, but there has been a larger-than-life response to this that does not seem warranted,” Mayor Teresa Barrett said at the tail-end of the meeting, which ran late into the night.

The couple, who previously spent decades in Novato, bought the historic house for $1.5 million in 2016, referring to it as their “home for the future.” 73-year-old Peter Haas is an heir to the Levi Strauss family fortune, having served with the iconic denim company for 17 years in addition to sitting on its board of directors for 34 years before he stepped off last year.

He and his wife, Ginnie, permanently moved into the gray two-story Victorian home on 6th Street two years ago.

“We’ve been enamored with what Petaluma has to offer for several years now, there’s a sense of vibrancy and community that really is appealing and compelling for us,” Peter Haas said. “Since we’ve been living here the last couple years, it’s even more so, it feels right for us.”

The historic home was designed by the architect Brainerd Jones, lauded for his handiwork throughout Petaluma, and revered by local historians.

In an emailed statement, Preserve Petaluma said they were disappointed in the decision, alleging City Council has a “complete disregard for the standards of historic preservation.”

“As a group, we have lost trust and faith in the City following its required processes and its fair and consistent application of established standards to protect the community’s interests and resources,” the group of neighbors said.

City Council and staff suggested that better public outreach by the Haases earlier this year may have addressed budding issues before they ballooned.

At Monday night’s meeting, Barrett said the Haas’ decision to not hold a neighborhood meeting early this summer, which they say was because of pandemic restrictions, created a rebound effect that fed into distrust and anger. Despite this initial snafu, Barrett said the response from neighbors against the home renovation has been out of proportion with the renovation, and chided the homeowners and neighbors for their handling of the dispute.

“I believe there were a tremendous amount of city resources that were put into this that could have been better used,” Barrett said at the conclusion of Monday’s council meeting. “We are here moving into 12:30 a.m. at night, assessing something that probably could have been taken care of early on. I hope this is a lesson learned, if nothing else.”

(Contact Kathryn Palmer at kathryn.palmer@arguscourier.com, on Twitter @KathrynPlmr.)

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