Sierra Madre Couple May Have Dug Themselves Out of House and Home

Time is running out for a Sierra Madre couple who, for more than 10 years, has been trying to covert their home into a wine bar and has been battling with the city over permitting issues for the endeavor.

Last year, the couple lost a legal fight in which they hoped to stop an injunction ordering them to cease construction work on the bar. In July, Pasadena Superior Court Judge C. Edward Simpson ordered a receiver to take management of the property, according to a report in the Silicon Valley Mercury News.

Now, if the Jeff and Taryn Hildreth want to continue the legal battle, it will cost them $50,000 just to bring the appeal. That's the appeal bond amount set by Simpson, according to a recent San Gabriel Valley Tribune article. The couple told the Tribune they don't have the $50,000.

When Patch first caught up with the couple in February 2011, the Hildreths had just received bad news from the L.A. County Superior Court, which granted a preliminary injunction ordering them to cease work on a 16-foot-deep cave they'd been digging beneath their home. The hole was the first step in creating the bar.

At issue was whether the city ever issued building permits for his subterranean enterprise.

According to the 2011 Patch article, the city did issue a conditional use permit that would have allowed the Hildreths to store and sell wine from the home, but as far as the city is concerned the permit expired after a year when the couple "did not commence the use of the premises within the time period required under the terms of the conditional use permit.”

Another permit was issued after Sierra Madre officials found construction without proper permits on the property. The city said it then issued a temporary permit to allow shoring of the newly dug basement walls due to safety concerns.

But Sierra Madre City Manager Elaine Aguilar said the city has no paperwork concerning a permit for the construction and operation of the wine bar and such a permit never has existed.

“To think that the city would lose every single document related to a proposed development is just silly,” Aguilar said at the time. “I can see maybe losing one piece of paper here or there, but not everything.”

Jeff Hildreth claimed to have copies of the permit. It's a claim he still maintains, according the Tribune article, which reports the court-ordered receiver for the property has moved forward with efforts to correct the multiple code violations listed by the city.

The receiver, reports the Tribune, has received three contractor proposals to fill in the hole, two of which involve tearing the house down altogether. The third proposal would cost a pricey $300,000, but would preserve the house.

The Hildreths continue to maintain their permits are applicable and valid and that the violations can be fixed at minimal cost, according to the Tribune.