14 DAY TRIAL // This week, a judge approved Apple magnate Steve Jobs the decision to pull down the trouble house in Woodside in order to build a smaller home on a wooden property, the SFGate notes.
Steve Jobs bought the Spanish Colonial Revival house in 1984. He lived in it for ten years and then rented it, but, since 2000, the place has been left unclaimed, as the SFGate relates. The historical mansion was designed by Architect George Washington Smith for copper baron Daniel Jackling and it has about 30 rooms, 14 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, as the same source reports. It lies on no less than six acres of forested land.
SFGate also relates that the main inconvenient of this long-delayed matter has been the opposite opinion of a preservation group called Save Our Heritage, which insisted on relocating the 85-year-old house. It further notes that Jobs first received an approval for a demolition permit in 2004, but the council said that it was a very delicate matter because it was a historical building, although it agreed with Steve Jobs that retrieving it would be too expensive and economically invalid.
But Save Our Heritage blocked the demolition decision in court, and Jobs found himself stuck with the untenantable house. Egelko further notes that Jobs submitted, in addition, more information to the Town Council and another demolition approval came along in May 2009.
It has been noted by the Superior Court Judge Marie Weiner that Jobs tried for several years to find someone who would restore the mansion, but had no success. Her new instructions, SFGate notes, allow Steve Jobs to apply for a demolition permit.
Also being quoted by MacdailyNews, Bob Egelko says that Susan George, the town manager, stated on Friday that the officials would need some time to analyze the permit and would require Jobs to save objects of historic interest from the building and turn them over to the town. It is also a known fact that Jobs also received an offer from Jason and Magalli Yoho to unrig the structure and rebuild it on their five-acre property about two miles away. This solution seems to please everybody, SFGate concludes.