HomeMy WebLinkAboutRuth Miller Info
RUTtI M. lYIILLER
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758 1) <3lreel · i\shlBf1d, Ore80f1 97520
Residence 54:1 · 48'2-8659
OfIlce/t'ax 54:1 · 48'2-5387
March 30, 2004
To: Planning Dept.
Re.: Appeal of Sidney DeBoer House
PIiILIP C. L!\NG. LC6W
Please make the attached (3 pp.) part of the appeal packet to be heard
April 6th.
e::'
LANG
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12 UTIl M. MILLE12
PIULlP C. LN\JG, LC8W
758 {) 8lreeL · Ashland, Ore8on 975'20
Qesidence 541 · 48'2-8659
Omce/fll>::541 · 48'2-5387
April 1, 2004
To: Op.-Ed. Editor - Daily Tidings
Re.: Article, p.l 3/24/04 - "Ashland under Appeal I'
The following is submitted as an op.-ed. piece. Because it may have some
legal bearing on the upcoming appeal on the Sidney DeBoer house, it is also
being submitted to the file on that property.
DID HE REALLY SAY THAT?!
In the past mayor DeBoer would call me and set up an appointment to talk.
I would like to think that his intention was to get a different point
of view on issues on::whi<Ell we usually disagree. Afterwards, I would
reflect on his remarks and say to myself: "Did he really say that?!"
That has to be e~~ry-j_ciEizenls response to his comments in the article
"Ashland under Appeal" (T.idings-3/24/04). Mayor DeBoer states that
appeals are "wasting money through the courts". Was the mayor out of the
room when, in 6th grade civics we were taught about the tri-partite division
of our government into executive, legislative and judicial branches,
providing a series of "checks and balances"? The courts U3.~lcity council
appeal is quasi-judicial, and LUBA is a judicial proceding) have often
been the last resort of those oppressed by executive or legislative power.
The mayor goes on to say that "it is very small groups of people who want
to take everything to court and be negative on most things" . Just what
"small groups" might these be? Might they be the small group of self-
appointed economic elites who continue to run Ashland in their best
interests, and compound their exploitation of the rest of us by claiming,
as the mayor arrogantly doesr~ that his point of view represents what the
majority of Ashland citizens want? Mayor DeBoer was on council, and was
active in the 1997 revision of the hillside ordinance. The record,,;'shows
that he tried to prevent any strenghhening of the ordinance; that ordinance
is relevent in the Sidney DeBoer house appeal before council on April 6th.
During his tenure, the issue of FAR (floor area ratios in historic
districts) was repeatedly dropped to the bottom of the agendaclat'~.the
planning commission for a year, until after his brother got a building
permit for the humongous house he proposes to bumld (also relevant to
the upcoming appeal) .
J\PR
lZUM
Op.-Ed. - Tidings - 4/1/04 - p~ 2
Moreover, the mayor's comments are misleading. The Bemis project, for which
he voices approval, is being appealed to LUBA by the developer, after
the city council, representing "the majority of what the citizens of Ashland
want" turned down the project.
The mayor's remarks cast a pall on the Bemis appeal, telling the city
attorney "don't try to win this appeal because as mayor I oppose it".
The mayor will also be sitting with council on the appeal of his brother's
house, and will cast a vote in case of a tie; he has already given his
message that this appeal too, is unnecessary and frivolous.
His appalling remarks ca.st__s8xious doubt_on his judgment and capacity
to represent us as ur mayor.
APR
1 2004
R UTil M. MILLER
PtIILIP C. Lm~C. LC6\V
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758 1) olreel · Ashland, Orct;on 97S'20
Qesidencc 541 · 48'2-8659
OfEce/fax 541 · 48'2-5387
March 26, 2004
Re.: The proposed DeBoer House
See attached drawings:
Rendering #1: Front elevation of the proposed DeBoer House
Rendering #2: Front elevation of the Theodore M. Irwin House (Greene & Greene)
Mr. DeBoer has made a point of touting his proposed house as a "Greene and
Greene" (type) masterpiece. A House "that will be admired 100 years from
now". I believe that he has also taken his minions down to Pasadena to
view the Gamble House.
Greene & Greene, and the widespread Craftsman movement were a revolt against
the excesses and vulgarities of turn-of-the-century styles - namely
Victorians in the Queen Anne, Italianate, etc. styles. Such houses represented
a "politic" as well as an aesthetic. They proclaimed man as "master" -
able to torture iron into baroqqee forms of vines and leaves; they
celebrated wretched excess: false fronts, conspicuous consumption, over-
embell~sament everywhere and on everything. These houses fitted the taste
of the time of the nouveau riche making their "statement" in the gilded
age. They were the late-19th-early twentieth century versions of today's
real-estate developers and car dealers.
It,-isiironic that the resurgence of crafEsman style, which has been going
on for close to two decades now, mas become the style of the nouveau riche
trying to make their "statement" about their wealfu.h, power and taste.
Ironic because first, Greene and Greene would not be designing such houses
today. Indeed, at the end of their careers, they hade moved in totally
different directions, as their later works indicate. Ironic, secondly,
because what the present proposed development offers is extremely similar
to a second-rate Greene and Greene remodel of 1906.
The Theodore M. Irwin House was a remodel of G. & G. 's Katherine M. Duncan
House of 1900, itseif an ordinary house of the time, indicating only
"the Greene's leaning toward the Arts and Crafts Movement in its inter,iJor
treatment". (Greene and Greene: Architecture as Fine Art, Randell M. Macksinson,
p. 56). Remodelled as the Theodore M. Irwin house of 1906, it bears a
stri8:ing resemblance to the proposed DeBoer house, with the mdstl::.s\blIiking
difference. being the enla~gement of the entry pediment to an out-of-scale
brutally imposing size :b.ha:t-~intiri:tidat..es_=t:athe:t.lthab.~,welcomes.
The IrWIDn House was demolished over 75 years ago. Unlike other lost Greene
and Greene's, no one is mourning its passing.
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