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The park and its clubhouse, now home to the Santa Paula Theater Center, is celebrating its centennial this year; the Rotary Club adopted the park, providing tree-scaping and a pergola found to be part of the original area.
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SP Conservancy requests Council to stop Clunie Home demolition
January 18, 2017
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The president of the newly formed Santa Paula Conservancy (SPC) came to the City Council at the January 3 meeting urging the city and SPC work together for historical preservation.
Gabriel A. Zamora told the council “I’m here as a resident of Santa Paula,” as well as president of the conservancy, to “call attention to two projects that are a concern to us and an example of why we can do better.”
He said city planning for water conservation at Ebell Park — reportedly lawn removal — seems “to be in conflict” with its historic preservation.
The park and its clubhouse, now home to the Santa Paula Theater Center, is celebrating its centennial this year; the Rotary Club adopted the park, providing tree-scaping and a pergola found to be part of the original area.
But any plans for the park pale in comparison to the fate of the former home of acclaimed painter Robert Clunie: located at 40 Palm Court (formally 311 Palm Court), the home has been purchased by the Santa Paula Unified School District and is targeted for demolition as part of a high school parking project. The Clunie home, built in the 1930s, is just one of several houses purchased in the area for the project.
According to Wikipedia, Clunie designed and built the home in his wife Myrtle Ireland’s hometown of Santa Paula in 1923, incorporating an artist’s studio where he completed many famed works. The couple sold the home in 1948 when they relocated to Bishop, an inspirational area for Clunie.
Zamora said the Ebell Park project and the “obvious undesirable” prospect of the Clunie home being demolished are “examples of why we can do better; I can’t tell you how excited we are,” at the potential of working “constructively” with the city to address such historical preservation.
In an open letter to the council, Zamora and Secretary/Treasurer Pamela Murphy wrote that the “existing lawn at Ebell Park is within the property boundary of the nationally registered Ebell Club and is included among the historic and current functions specified in the Club’s registry nomination.
Removal of the lawn is a change to a Registered California Historic Resource,” that requires an analysis by a qualified preservation professional to determine whether this change is consistent with the secretary of the interior’s standards and, as such, exempt under CEQA.
“The Clunie House,” the letter continued, “is the location of a significant local or national event, the life of California Impressionist painter Robert Clunie. As such it merits nomination for landmark status and protection under Santa Paula Ordinance 816, which states that Nomination of Landmarks ‘shall be made to the Design Assistance Committee on a form prepared by it and may be submitted by a member of the Committee, owner of record, the Historic Preservation Commission, or the City Council.’
“Santa Paula adopted Ordinance 816 on November 19th, 1984,” but the letter notes it is not clear whether the city ever caused the Design Assistance Committee to create a nomination of landmarks form.
If not, “The absence of this form effectively deprives the public and Santa Paula’s historic resources of the means for Landmark designation and protection that Ordinance 816 was adopted to establish.”
The letter concluded with request a by the conservancy for the city “to immediately adopt a specific resolution prohibiting any demolition, alteration, or modification of the Clunie House that has not been determined to be consistent with the requirements of a Historic Landmark Nomination for this property that has been lawfully completed by the Historic Preservation Commission of the City of Santa Paula, and that the City take any and all further actions at its discretion to cause the Design Assistance Committee to perform all of the powers and responsibilities assigned to it by Ordinance 816.”
Last year the SPC along with the San Buenaventura Conservancy has filed a lawsuit against the city and Williams Homes over a 40-single-family home development on the Hardison House property.
