Issue date: April 01, 1998
By JENNIFER DESAI
After a series of three special meetings and much discussion, Atherton's Town Council unexpectedly voted on Tuesday, March 24, to decline Bill and Gail Lyons' offer to donate the historic Watkins-Cartan house, now located at 25 Isabella Ave., to the town, and to move the structure to Holbrook-Palmer Park.
Citing constrained staff time and the possibility that park revenues would be affected by the relocation of the house, the council voted 5-0 against accepting the gift.
"Our staff is fully loaded," said Councilman Bob Huber, "and particularly during budget time you're on a tight schedule. This was a land-use problem, and those aren't easily resolved; I felt we were moving too fast on a course that would not lead to good decision-making."
Though Mayor Malcolm Dudley voted with the rest of the council, he was disappointed, he said. "The house would have been a major enhancement for the park," he said. "It's not without controversy, but this is a real loss."
"We're very disappointed," Gail Lyons said. "I don't know what happened from Tuesday to Tuesday; no one had told us that they didn't want the house. We'll have to explore other options."
Other options, at this point, include donating the house to Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, though details were unavailable. "It's very premature to say much about this," said GiGi Morgan, director of development at Sacred Heart Schools. "Something like this would have to go before our board of trustees, and it certainly hasn't yet."
For the council, however, rejecting the house might affect the town's plans to give the park's Main House to Atherton's Arts Committee to use as its arts center. While Mayor Dudley has said that "we reaffirm that the Main House will be the arts center, and won't renege on our commitment," other members of the council wonder whether the rejection of the house invalidates that plan.
The decision has left Marion Oster, president of the Atherton Heritage Committee and regular attendee of the council's special meetings on the house, disgruntled. "This was such a sweet deal, and the town has lost a real opportunity," she said. "How often does a town reject a gift like this because it doesn't feel its staff can handle the work?"
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