Deny Demolition Permit for 32 Granada Street

Update: ARBIZANNI was a no-show. He's hired attorney SIDNEY FRANKLYN ANSBACHER (L.LM. Arkansas) of UPCHURCH, BAILEY & UPCHURCH.

Demolition applicant JOHN ARBIZANNI, left, with Christy and Len Weeks

Item 6. B on the HARB agenda for today at 1 PM, thanks to Capt. Lee Geanuleas (U.S.N., Retired)

L. John Arbizzani – Applicant
32 Granada Street: To demolish a building older than fifty years, recorded on the Florida Master Site File, and not located in a local or national register district constructed by 1899.

It's the unique purple house on Granada Street a few doors north of the Corazon Theater and appears to be in CL-1 zoning.

The owner states the "intended use" as single family home. Per SJCo.Property Appraiser website, the owner's homesteaded residence is a large water-front home outside the city limits.

As we have recently learned, it really doesn't matter what the applicant says, it only matters what the zoning allows. And once demolished, CL-1 zoning certainly does not limit the use to a single family home. 

Parking lot anyone? 

And, so it goes....

To enhance your "situational awareness" (as they would say in my former life), below is a picture showing the lot at 32 Granada St (in blue) and adjacent lots. Today at 2:00 PM the HARB will hear a request by the owner, John Arbizzani, to demolish the two story wood frame house on the lot. SJC property records indicate the house was built in 1880. 

According to former Mayor George Gardner's newsletter, the owner told the HARB last month, “I want to build a single family residence for myself and my wife,” Hmmmm...

It is interesting to note that the lots on either side of 32 Granada St. are also owned by Mr. Arbizzani. All are zoned CL-1. One is a city metered parking lot and the other has a residential structure of similar vintage to 32 Granada. 

Don't know what the HARB will decide, but let's go into this with our eyes open. If the HARB approves the demo, who's willing to to bet their next paycheck that a single family home gets built on 32 Granada?