UPDATE: This may not be the last of this case and it is by no means resolved yet. The agreement does not guarantee the protection of the House and does not guarantee that it will be preserved. Thus far, Smythe has neither the money nor the location to more the House. He basically has agreed to take it off Jobs’ hands. Uphold Our Heritage, the group suing to protect the House has not yet decided what position to take on this matter.

The Jackling house will now be moved to a better location and restored to its original floorplan.

By Diana Samuels

Posted: 07/15/2009 12:25:31 AM PDT

The agreement detailing how an angel investor will dismantle and rebuild Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ Woodside home was approved by the Woodside Town Council on Tuesday night.

Jobs has long wished to demolish the 14-bedroom “Jackling House” he bought in 1984 and replace it with a smaller, modern home. After years of searching for someone to take the building off his hands and legal fights with preservationists, Jobs’ attorney announced three weeks ago they had reached an agreement with Gordon Smythe, of Palo Alto-based Propel Partners.

On Tuesday, the council was asked to approve a three-way agreement between Jobs, Smythe and the town. The agreement says that Jobs will pay $604,800 to deconstruct the mansion, and Smythe will store the pieces of the home and put forward a “good faith effort” to find a new property and rebuild it. If he has not found a site within five years, parts of the home could be given back to the town.

The council voted 6-1 to approve the agreement, with Mayor Peter Mason dissenting. Council members said little about the agreement, asking a few questions mostly centered on the fate of the home’s historic pipe organ. Smythe said he likely won’t keep the organ, and city staff said the agreement would put property like that under the town’s authority.

After the meeting, Smythe said his plans for the home will focus on preserving the original 10,000 square feet of the home built by architect George Washington Smith in
Advertisement
1925. A large addition to the home, including the organ room, was built in 1931.

“If you look at that addition, it really changes the whole flow of the building,” Smythe said.

He has said he wants the house because he is a fan of its architect, and plans to live there with his wife and three children.

Smythe pointed out that the agreement focuses on preserving the exterior of the home, while allowing for some changes inside. It asks that Smythe follow “to the extent practical the original plans of the House for exteriors, with modifications to the interiors to make it consistent with the requirements for a House of commensurate quality and location in contemporary terms.”

Smith said he originally began talking to Jobs’ representatives about the house in October 2006, and spent about a year looking for a site for it. Smith said he is waiting for agreements to be finalized before he renews the search.

He said he’d like to keep the house on a large piece of land, since it is on six acres currently. He said he’d searched all around the Bay Area, mostly within an approximately 50-mile radius to the west, east and south of Woodside.

“We don’t want to be rushed,” he said. “We want to find the right site.”

While Tuesday’s agreement is essentially the last approval the town needs to give, the debate will likely continue. A judge has given the preservation group Uphold Our Heritage until Aug. 3 to submit their objections to the agreement.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sent the town council a letter urging the town to amend the agreement, adding “specific commitments that the Jackling House will be reconstructed in a historically appropriate manner.”

The agreement is “still not a guaranteed preservation solution,” Uphold Our Heritage attorney Doug Carstens said in a phone interview Monday.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_12840657?nclick_check=1

Now everyone will be happy!

the right to do what he wants on his own land is one of the fundamental rights of being American!

Don’t you bother to read anything I’ve written in the post or comment thread?? There’s a very small matter of Calif. state law which stands in the way of Jobs demolishing this cultural landmark. And thank God for that.

you’re a meddling little Jew

And thanks for adding that little spice of anti-Semitism. That really shows your true colors. Anti-Semites are not welcome here.

The ruin was only built in 1925!! If it was the homestead of the original settlers to the area, or had some major function such as a town hall, then I’d agree with you.

However, Mr. Jobs bought this place over 20 years ago and the right to do what he wants on his own land is one of the fundamental rights of being American!

But you wouldn’t understand that would you because you’re a meddling little Jew who feels put out. Get over yourself and do the whole Jewish community a favour by not meddling with things that don’t concern you!

I do NOT believe that if the house be moved that Mr. Jobs be forced to pay out of his pocket to do it. If someone feels so strongly to move it, they need to come to the table with a real offer, so far we’ve not seen this until just recently, and Mr. Jobs is considering the current offer as legitimately feasible.

I don’t know whether you are an architect or not but you clearly don’t know or understand California law. If Jobs wants to build a home on this site to replace the one that sits there currently, he must move the original. Actually several indididuals have made entirely reasonable offers to move the house, but Jobs has refused to entertain them. If you don’t believe me go to the Jackling House preservation site & write the site owner & she will quote you chapter & verse. It is JOBS who has the responsibility to preserve the House, not any subsequent owner. So if he wants his new home he has to do WHATEVER it takes including paying for the removal if necessary. If he doesn’t pay & can’t find a new owner who will, then he sits with an albatross around his neck till he comes to his senses & does what it takes to get the House moved or decides to build his home elsewhere.