SAN CLEMENTE : Historic-House Owner Can’t Give It Away

Jerry Mack made the city an offer he thought it couldn’t refuse. He was wrong.

He wants to give away a historic house, no strings attached, but has no takers. And if Mack can’t find someone in 60 days to remove the old white stucco house from his property at 135 Avenida Florencia, it will be demolished.

“It’s a beauty,” said Dorothy Fuller, president of the San Clemente Historical Society. The house was built in 1927 when city founder Ole Hanson mandated that houses be built in a Spanish-style, she said. “We’d like to save whatever we can.”

But to the owner, the house has been more “like a fatal stab wound,” said his son, Mike Mack.

Since 1991, when Jerry Mack bought the property, he has been trying to remove the aging house so he can build an eight-unit condominium complex. Mack applied for a permit to demolish the house, but discovered that it was one of 280 historical homes still standing in the city.

Following city regulations, he looked into moving the house instead of demolishing it, but found that would cost too much. Finally, in June, he decided to offer it for free to anyone who would take it.

“For the last 2 1/2 years, we’ve forgone rent and had people in there trying to fix it up to make the house presentable and to try to accommodate a move of this structure,” Mike Mack said. “The economy has been working against us, and so has age on the building.”

With nobody expressing real interest in the house, Mike Mack went before City Council members last week to ask them to change their minds and approve a demolition permit.

The City Council approved his request on one condition: Mack first must advertise that the house is free to anyone who wants to relocate it, preferably within San Clemente. If at the end of that 60-day period there are no takers, the house can be demolished.

“It would be cheaper to build a duplicate than to preserve the original,” Mack said. “You have to do wiring, plumbing, structural repairs, heating, air conditioning. You have to redo the whole house.”

Local realtor Byron Marshall, who represents the Mack family, called the structure “marginally historically significant.”

“Only the front of the roof has tile on it, the back half inside is just not very good,” Marshall said. “It makes economic sense to have it demolished.”

The city, however, disagrees.

“Preservation efforts should be pursued for the home to the extent feasible,” said Teri Delcamp, assistant city planner.

If he demolishes it, Delcamp said, Mack must salvage the original building materials, including the roof tiles and windows.