HISTORIC PRESERVATION: Injunction filed against interim regs

Professorville homeowner claims area doesn't qualify as historic district

Mike Campbell, the owner of a pre-1940 home on Kingsley Avenue on Palo Alto, has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the city's interim historic regulations that prevent him from remodeling.

Campbell's attorney, John Hanlin, said the suit, filed Oct. 8, argues that the designation of Professorville as a historical district is an arbitrary one and that Campbell's home is not worthy of historical designation. The hearing date for the injunction is set for Oct. 23 in San Jose.

"If you drive into Professorville, you can't designate where it starts and where it ends," Hanlin said, citing Boston's Beacon Hill or New Orleans' French Quarter as truly historic because "all those homes are of the same vintage and the same era."

City Attorney Ariel Calonne said the lawsuit is without merit. "Their legal allegations are so sweeping that they would undercut every historic preservation program in the United States," Calonne said.

Included in Campbell's lawsuit are 12 independent declarations from architectural experts and other affected parties, including builders John Low and James Witt and Mann Kim, the owner of Rosedale Manor.1 n

--Elisabeth Traugott

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