Larkspur home, cottage project prompts historical review

A plan to build a new home in Larkspur is being sent to the city’s Heritage Preservation Board because it involves renovating and relocating a historical cottage.

The board will weigh competing reports from architectural preservation experts to determine whether the project meets requirements of the secretary of the Interior Department’s standards for rehabilitation of historic structures.

If it fails to satisfy those standards, the cottage at 7 Ardmore Road will no longer be eligible for listing in the California Register of Historical Places. The cottage is listed on the city’s local inventory of historical places, but is not on the state or national registers.

“We want to find the best way to get this project approved while still maintaining the integrity and honoring the cottage,” said Ellen Hotung, who owns the property with her husband Stephen Boyd. “It’s something we’re taking very seriously and we definitely want to get it right.”

The couple live in Park City, Utah, and plan to make the site their new home, Hotung said.

The cottage, now referred to as the “Owlswood Cottage,” is the last surviving structure of the Owl’s Wood estate, which was established in the late 1800s.

The estate was a cluster of cottages owned by the Pixley family. The property included an orchard and vineyard. Frank Pixley, the family patriarch, was a politician who served as San Francisco city attorney, a state Assembly member and state attorney general. In 1877, Pixley founded the San Francisco Argonaut, a weekly newspaper.

The project would renovate the 765-square-foot cottage for use as an accessory dwelling unit, also known as an in-law apartment.

The proposal aims to retain the original scale and layout and to refurbish or replace the exterior siding, trim, windows and doors of the original cottage.

The cottage would be relocated from the center of the property to the northeast corner, making room for a new 3,073-square-foot home with an in-ground swimming pool and spa.

Hotung said the couple are attracted to the outdoor amenities, shopping and restaurants that Larkspur has to offer, and they “fell in love” with the property when they saw it.

“We want to rehabilitate it so it is a useful home,” Hotung said, adding that the cottage is too small.

Page and Turnbull, an architecture and historic preservation firm with an office in San Francisco, was hired to perform a project analysis. Their report concluded that the project would adhere to state and municipal requirements.

However, the city commissioned a review by Jerri Holan and Associates, an Albany firm that disagreed with the findings.

The two firms disagreed on whether the original cottage featured board-and-batten siding or stick-style siding.

The Holan report concluded that in relocating the cottage and changing the siding style, “it would lose most of its integrity and would not be eligible for the National or California Registers and delisting from the local Inventory would be recommended.”

In attempt to settle the dispute, the city commissioned a third review by Garvaglia and Associates of San Francisco, said Elise Semonian, the city’s community development director.

“The main point of disagreement was if the cottage could be moved at all,” Semonian said.

The third report concluded that “the slight relocation of the cottage would be inconsequential to the building’s historic character, due to its characteristics of site and environment already having been lost with the amount of development around the property.”

The report also concluded that the original cottage featured board-and-batten siding, not stick-style.

However, “on the point of proposed new construction, GA opines that the proposed new home is not in compliance with the Standards, as it is not compatible with the historic cottage in terms of massing, size, and scale,” the report says.

The consultants recommended a series of alterations so that the new home was “more responsive to the historic cottage in order to respect the historic building form and give it prominence.”

In response, the applicant has revised design for the roof and windows to better match and highlight the cottage’s original form.

The project requires the heritage board’s endorsement before advancing to the Planning Commission for approval.

Semonian said the staff is recommending that the heritage board follow the recommendations made in the Garvaglia and Associates report.

However, the board could decide to base its recommendation to the commission on the Holan report, which would trigger the need for an environmental impact report to further analyze the historical impact.

The project will require approval of design review, a variance for the cottage to be partially within the front setback and a heritage tree permit to remove three heritage-sized trees.

The heritage board is scheduled to meet via teleconference at 7 p.m. Wednesday . The agenda and instructions to join the meeting will be posted on the city’s website at ci.larkspur.ca.us.

Project documents are available at bit.ly/3GSNgqR.