William Kefalas's Attorney Writes a Letter to the City

It appears that a legal strategy in the form of an attorney's letter has now emerged in the rapidly escalating row between the people of the City of Sierra Madre and the fellow who essentially razed the deemed historic (and now quite red-tagged) Henry A. Darling house. It sketches out for us the very apparent threat of a lawsuit, and then suggests an overly plausible fig leaf of an excuse for City Hall to cave in and settle this unfortunate matter out of court. A test of wills, as it were.

The following is taken from an agenda report for Thursday's Planning Commission meeting. It can be found in its original City Hall setting by clickinghere.


Basically what Carlson is tossing out here is if the city allows Kefalas to do what was in his original CUP, and with no loss of any square footage, generic Hardie board siding, or chain store obtained windows, and without any further involvement of Sierra Madre's "vitriolic"Planning Commission, he will magnanimously accept that.

Contemporaneous notes and all.

There is also no mention of any historical findings, despite the fact that it was Mr. Kefalas who, and at the specific request of the Planning Commission, paid to have an official historical report done. An interesting omission from Carlson for sure.

Here is how one reader describes this:

So let me get this straight. Kefalas demolishes a house in violation of the city's demolition ordinance without getting the required Historic Resource Report. When that report is eventually done it reveals what every sentient being already knew before the demolition was done, namely that the Henry A Darling House was historically significant. Now Kefalas gets a lawyer and threatens to sue the city unless they allow him to proceed without regard to the historic significance of the house as revealed in the report. Unbelievable. That's why I'm boycotting The Only Place in Town where he is the owner and where he evidently uses the money he earns to destroy historic homes in Sierra Madre.

Be aware that while this letter is included in the Planning Commission packet for the February 16 meeting, the date of this event will likely move again.


Carlson has the date for this week's Planning Commission "hearing" as February 19th, which is on a Sunday this year. So yes, it looks like he really will need that extra month to get his act together. Out of courtesy to Mr. Carlson, here is a calendar page for February 2017.


One more thing. There is a closed session of the Planning Commission just before this Thursday's public meeting. Any guesses as to what that is about?