Time Running Out for Jeff Hildreth’s Dream of a Subterranean Wine Bar on East Montecito

A lawsuit filed by the City of Sierra Madre in late 2010 has put two residents’ plans of creating an underground wine bar at their East Montecito Avenue home on indefinite hold.   

It’s been a battle more than 10 years in the making that finally came to a head last month as the L.A. County Superior Court granted a preliminary injunction against Sierra Madre residents Jeff and Taryn Hildreth. Ruling in favor of the city’s position, the court issued an order on Jan. 24 requiring the owners of the so-called “Sterlingoak” property to cease work on a 16-foot deep cave that Jeff Hildreth has been digging beneath the couple’s home for almost a decade.

The problem, according to a statement issued by the city, as well as official court documents, is that Hildreth never filed for or received the appropriate building permits for his planned subterranean enterprise. Now, the Hildreth’s have until Feb. 24--30 days from the January ruling--to submit plans “to either legalize their alterations and other construction at the property on in the alternative, remove the illegal conditions."

But Hildreth maintains that the city did, in fact, receive and approve plans for the construction and operation of a business out of the home, which sits in a mixed-use development zone that includes single-family residences alongside industrial manufacturing and commercial stores along East Montecito. Hildreth maintains that he has copies of the permits and that the city must have lost their copies over the years. But City Manager Elaine Aguilar says this is simply not the case.

“To think that the city would lose every single document related to a proposed development is just silly,” Aguilar said. “I can see maybe losing one piece of paper here or there, but not everything.” Aguilar also said that if the Hildreths have copies of permits that the city does not, that they should have shown them to the court when given the opportunity last month.

Perhaps shedding a bit of light on the mystery of the allegedly missing documents is the fact that the Hildreths were actually issued two permits regarding their development.

The first was a conditional use permit that would have allowed the couple to start a business storing and selling wine from the home. However, according to a statement from the city, that permit, which was issued in 1999, expired one year later when the Hildreth’s “did not commence the use of the premises within the time period required under the terms of the conditional use permit.”

The second permit, according to the city, was issued only after Sierra Madre code enforcement officials found the Hildreth’s had undertaken construction on the property without the necessary permits. It was then that the city issued a building permit to allow temporary “shoring” of the newly dug basement’s walls due to safety concerns. According to Aguilar, the document was clear that no other work was being permitted with the issuance of that permit.

But Hildreth continued digging nonetheless, adding concrete reinforcement and expanding the hole wider and deeper than before. Then, when a series of storms brought heavy rain to Sierra Madre last November, Hildreth quickly built a large deck in his front yard to cover the hole and prevent flooding or erosion. This too, according to the city, was in violation of city building code, as no permits were issued for the deck.

“You saw how much it rained last November,” Hildreth said, “What was I supposed to do, let the walls cave in just because the city put a stop work order on me? I have to protect my neighbors home, too.”

It’s these type of safety concerns on which the city and the Hildreth’s might agree, were the paperwork only filed in the correct fashion. In its statement, the city sounds much like Hildreth himself, saying that the safety standards it is out to enforce “not only protect the occupants of the buildings,  they also seek to protect neighbors and those visiting the premises.”

While all hope for the Sterlingoak wine bar is not lost, the court injunction has put a time limit on how much longer the back and forth will continue. And Hildreth feels somewhat at a loss for what to do.

“They’ve got some hired gun prosecutor after us, and we’re representing ourselves in this,” Hildreth said. “Every lawyer I’ve talked to wants 10 or 20 grand to even look at the case. I don’t have that kind of money. All my money is in the hole.”

Hildreth did say that local attorney and former Mayor Kurt Zimmerman had initially said he would help defend the couple’s interests, but that Zimmerman later backed out, saying he couldn’t step in now that the case was “already in litigation.”

“Isn’t that exactly when you need the lawyers, when you’re in litigation?” Hildreth asked, clearly exasperated with the situation.

In the interim, Hildreth said he and his supporters would be holding an art show soon at the property in order to raise money for a legal defense fund.

While the city isn’t ruling out any possibilities for the project, it is requiring that Hildreth draw up specific plans, have an engineer review those plans and then submit them to the city for review. After that, the city may allow the project to move forward, assuming routine inspections satisfy local building code concerns and enforcement officials.

If the Hildreths don’t comply by Feb. 24, it’s not entirely clear what will happen. The judge could extend the timeline by another 30 days, or the property could be condemned, forcing the Hildreths, along with their dream of the Sterlingoak wine bar, out of the East Montecito property for good.