A Palo Alto angel investor who has agreed to dismantle, store and reassemble Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ sprawling Spanish revival mansion in Woodside only needs to make a “good-faith effort” to find another site for it, according to a draft agreement released Friday.
But the investor isn’t legally obligated to reconstruct the historic home, the document states.
Jobs has been fighting for years to demolish the 14-bedroom Jackling House, which architect George Washington Smith built for copper mining magnate Daniel Jackling in 1925. In June, investor Gordon Smythe and Jobs’ attorney Howard Ellman told the Woodside Town Council that they had negotiated a deal to save the house that Jobs once referred to as an “abomination.”
Under an agreement among those parties and the town of Woodside, Jobs will contribute $604,800 to disassemble, photograph and remove the mansion. Smythe will cover all other costs, including storage, according to the agreement, which is scheduled to go before the Town Council on Tuesday for approval.
If Smythe doesn’t begin restoring the home within five years, historically important components — including its flagpole, immense pipe organ and Spanish tiles — could revert to the town, the agreement says.
“The town has the first right of refusal, and if we don’t want them then there are other agencies and associations who are also listed in the mitigation measure,” Town Manager Susan George said Friday.
The agreement does not require Smythe to find and purchase a site for the home, which he intends to use as a personal residence for his wife and three young children.
“Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to impose upon (Smythe) an obligation to find and acquire a restoration site beyond the obligation of making a good-faith attempt to do so,” the document states. At the June meeting, Smythe said he was having trouble finding an appropriate site.
George noted that if Smythe fails to begin restoring the house in the five-year period stipulated in the document but has made significant progress, the town would likely grant him more time.
“I’m sure that if he were really close to finding a location and getting everything in place that that would be in everybody’s best interest,” George said, noting the Town Council may propose changes to Ellman and Smythe before voting on the document.
Jobs bought the building in the early 1980s and lived there about 10 years before renting it out, then leaving it vacant.
He got permits from the town to demolish it in 2004, but a preservation group called Uphold Our Heritage sued Jobs and the town, saying the initial environmental impact report didn’t demonstrate that preserving the house would cost more than replacing it, as Jobs contended.
Last year, Jobs submitted a renewed permit application indicating it would cost $13.3 million to restore the Jackling House versus $8.2 million to build a new, 6,000-square-foot home.
Doug Carstens, an attorney for Uphold Our Heritage, couldn’t be reached for comment Friday because of a medical emergency.
However, George said another attorney for Carstens’ firm participated by phone in a case management conference Friday with Woodside and Uphold Our Heritage.
At the conference, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Marie Weiner told the group to clarify its objections to the town’s most recent actions and submit them by Aug. 3, George said.
Smythe and his attorney, Douglas Martin, did not return calls Friday. Ellman has repeatedly declined to comment on the case.
