No demolition in sight for burned-out Bodega Bay home hit 14 months ago by sheriff’s deputy

BODEGA BAY

Continued inaction at the site of a burned-out house at the edge of the bayshore here has local residents wondering how much longer the structure might languish before someone makes a move.

Already, the charred and sodden remnants of the two-story vacation rental appear to be sliding toward the water, littering the shoreline with several chunks of wreckage as the building slumps and sags.

It’s been 14 months since a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy crashed into the vacation house on the side of Highway 1 during a high-speed pursuit, igniting a fire that destroyed the 1930s structure.

The problem since then? State and county regulators want to process the demolition permit for the house along with the application for new construction, so the owners aren’t authorized to tear down what’s still there while they’re working through approval of the whole package.

So the stringent safeguards in place to protect the coast maybe the very factors in this case that are leaving it at risk.

Wind and rain continue to break apart what’s left of the house, and the detritus is finding its way down the steep embankment, onto the mud flats and possibly into the water, local residents say.

Sonoma County building officials say they have conducted regular site visits, including one as recent as Friday, to monitor conditions at the site. They concluded the building is stable, according to a spokeswoman for Permit Sonoma, the county’s planning and building department.

The California Coastal Commission is monitoring the building, as well.

But debris now litters the shoreline, and local residents who pass by regularly have watched parts of the structure cave in.

“The house is just collapsing in upon itself,” said community leader Patty Ginochio. “It’s a disaster.”

It was Oct. 14, 2018, when Deputy Matthew Carlson lost control of his patrol vehicle on a curve of the highway, careened across the oncoming lane and over the embankment where his vehicle plunged into the building, landing on the lower floor.

Carlson was seriously injured in the accident, but he managed to help three guests awakened by the predawn crash safely escape the resulting fire. They were unhurt.

But the damaged structure, in the center of the town’s commercial district, is a bane to the business community, and to anyone concerned about potential water quality impacts.

It’s also just one of several failing structures in the harbor that pose environmental and public safety risks.

Built on pylons embedded in tidal mudflats at the edge of the bay, the deteriorating two-story building is adjacent to the embankment at the side of Highway 1, its second floor even with the roadway, once connected by a bridgelike entry span.

The structure was divided into two separate units, one used by the owners as a second home and the other, rented out to short-term guests.

Since the fire, much of what remained of the front of the house has fallen in and further collapsed into the space below the connecting span.

Some of it has slid partway down the embankment toward the shoreline.

“I’m waiting for it to fall off and into the bay,” said Liz Martin, president of the local fire board.

“Every storm, it’s collapsed in the middle, and that just keeps dropping further and further as it gets wet and the structure weakens. There’s nothing down there below to stop it from going into the water.”

Bodega Harbor resident Ed Cohen said cousins visiting from out of town were stunned to see recently that the blackened house was still standing a year after their last visit.

“It’s got to be impacting tourism here,” he said.

Owners Tim Farfan and Craig Miller, residents of Sonoma, say they’re frustrated, too, but are trying to work within a complicated system, under overlapping state and local jurisdictions.

They have a design plan pending with Permit Sonoma but also will need a use permit from the county and a coastal permit from the Coastal Commission.

“We want to get it taken out just as much as everyone in Bodega Bay does,” Miller said.

“But we’re in this really bad spot of wanting it done, but they’re not moving this along, and until they give us this permit to tear down and rebuild, we can’t do anything.”

In addition, they still plan to pursue a court claim against the county for the damage to their property so they can afford to rebuild; a formal administrative claim seeking $1.85 million shortly after the deputy’s crash was rejected.

Their next step is to file a lawsuit. They’re trying to develop a bid on the rebuilding cost so they know what to ask for, Miller said.

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes Bodega Bay, acknowledged substantial concern about the situation, given the potential threat to the environment and visual blight.

Coastal protection has historically focused so acutely on development, she said, that the rising need to consider aging buildings and demolition is too often overlooked.

The burned building “is obviously a community eyesore that’s been around way too long already,” Hopkins said, and needs to be removed as safely and quickly as possible.

“I’ve certainly advocated for that,” she said.