Frustrated HPRC continues design review for 2nd home

Benicia Historic Preservation Review Commission agreed Thursday to drop two required tasks on a Mills Act contract on 1025 West Second St., a home owned by Carla and Paula Chiotti.

But HPRC members were frustrated at the same meeting with the design of a house Scott Torres wants to build on a vacant lot at 859 West Second St., and gave Torres another month to modify his plans.

The Chiotti sisters inherited their historic house, an 1870s-era “classic revival” home. The Mills Act contract gives them a property tax break in exchange for completing a schedule of rehabilitation and maintenance tasks spelled out in a work plan.

The Mills Act program is an incentive for owners of historic properties to keep them in accordance with the Secretary of Interior Standards for Historic Preservation.

But one of the tasks included in the Chiottis’ contract has been to replace the house’s wooden door. The sisters said the door has been on the house since the 1930s, and it might be the home’s original door.

Benicia Senior Planner Suzanne Thorsen said her research indicated its design is so appropriate for the home that if the Chiottis had proposed replacing the front door with one of this type, she would have recommend approval.

Furthermore, if the door is original and the city required its removal, that task would violate Secretary of Interior mandates, Thorsen said.

She said the only reason she could find that the task was included in the contract was a single comment made during a previous HPRC meeting at which the Chiottis’ contract was discussed.

Normally, city staff and HPRC members don’t endorse cyclone fencing, but the panel concurred with Thorsen’s recommendation that a requirement to remove that type of fence in the house’s back yard also could be dropped from the contract, because it isn’t visible from the street and doesn’t detract from the home’s contribution to the city’s Downtown Historic District.

On another matter before the commission, the panel didn’t agree with Thorsen’s recommendation to approve the house and detached garage designs Torres and his architect, J.A. Jacobson, presented for the vacant lot on West Second Street.

The panel worried that the 3,932-square-foot, two-story home would look too massive for the neighborhood, even though some multi-family housing of similar size exists nearby.

Several members made suggestions that would reduce the apparent or the actual size of the house.

Architect Jacobson, of Napa, a long-time friend of Torres, agreed with some of the recommendations, such as lowering the house 6 inches. Torres also said the door he had chosen, which had a large oval glass insert, wasn’t a deal-breaker.

But Jacobson resisted suggestions from Commissioner Steve McKee, saying the proposal picked up elements from historic homes in Benicia, and that the form-based approach allowed his design.

“I think the scale needs to be brought down,” McKee said. “Yes, it meets the zoning (requirements), but we have the authority to say, ‘Do a better design.’”

He suggested Jacobson add windows to break up some of the home’s lines, questioned a window near some freestanding stairs, and said he found too many of the windows were designed the same size.

McKee questioned the size and appearance of a metal flue in the home’s back. He urged adding space between two upper-floor windows that he said appear to crowd other front elements. “It’s abutting where it doesn’t need to,” he said.

Commissioner Maggie Trumbly, acting as chairperson when Jon Van Landschoot recused himself because he lives too close to the project, said, “It’s large for the neighborhood.”

Commissioner Trevor Macenski agreed with McKee about the “centric” front elements, and said he would like to see an elongated porch.

But Commissioner Gilbert von Studnitz reminded the panel that the size is allowed in the Neighborhood-General-Open Zone, and Jacobson said if the commission was going to insist a design’s size must be reduced, it should be reflected in the city’s zoning codes.

Rather than vote on the matter Thursday night, the commission decided to delay taking action for a month to give Jacobson an opportunity to revise his plans for the Torres house.