San Jose
– For years, the Vanni family has been trying to build a new
wine tasting and reception center at their Solis Winery on Hecker
Pass. Thursday they learned they will have to keep waiting.
San Jose – For years, the Vanni family has been trying to build a new wine tasting and reception center at their Solis Winery on Hecker Pass. Thursday they learned they will have to keep waiting.
On the verge of finally getting the county’s approval for their project, the Vannis once again tripped over a wall that they insist will be a fitting addition to the historic character of Hecker Pass, but county planners say it goes against the area’s architectural heritage.
Now, four years and more than $250,000 into this renovation project, David Vanni said he’s ready to forget about it.
“We’re this close to giving up,” Vanni said after Santa Clara County planning commissioners postponed a decision on his project for at least 60 days. “We’ve been at this for four years. Every time we take another step, something else happens.”
Since they began drawing up plans for the project, which would replace their existing facility with a larger center closer to the road, the Vannis have run into nearly every possible planning snag. Their lot was initially declared illegal and they’ve had problems with septic, fire and water issues.
But the most formidable obstacle has been the Santa Clara County Historical Heritage Commission, an advisory board that last year expressed reservations about the project’s design, which includes a two-story building with a 15-foot Spanish-style wall that differs from the building’s otherwise squatter craftsman-like design.
The historical commission has a say in the matter because the existing building is listed in the county’s inventory of “Historical Heritage Resources,” which means that any changes to the property must conform to a variety of federal standards for historic structures.
Dana Peak, the planning staffer who recommended that the project be approved only if the wall is redesigned, said Thursday that the building does not have a coherent look and that as a historic resource, it must be treated “with the principles that are laid out.”
“it’s less about style then the principle of massing and scale and proportionality,” Peak said.
But to at least one commissioner, the argument is nothing but a question of taste based on subjective criteria.
“They say they don’t apply the ‘I like it, I don’t like it,’ test, but it’s extremely subjective and that’s the frustration,” Palmisano said. “How can an architect go off and hit on the head with a second or third try?”
The Vannis’ architect, Charles Weston, of Weston Miles in Morgan Hill, has so far refused to change the design and says that planning staffers are not accurately reflecting the attitudes of the historical commission. He said Thursday he doesn’t know if he will present another option for the commission to consider in two months.
