Preservationists say Carmel is purposely letting Flanders Mansion deteriorate.

The Flanders Mansion is turning into a ruin. The roof leaks. Mold and water stains from broken pipes mar the walls inside the two-story Tudor Revival cottage, built in 1925. Bats are the only inhabitants that enjoy the views of the Carmel Mission and Point Lobos’ cliffs and blue-green waters.

Just about everyone wants to restore the old home in the Mission Trials Nature Preserve to its original splendor. The problem lies in how to go about achieving this goal.

For several years, the City Council has maintained that the way to save Flanders is to sell it as a single-family home. Some area neighbors agree. But local history buffs and preservationists—along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society and others—want the city to keep the mansion, which is listed in the national, state and city register of historic places.

The Flanders Foundation, a nonprofit that wants to restore and maintain the old home, says the city should lease the mansion to them or some other group that will use the home for tours, readings, small concerts or even staff meetings.

Members of the Flanders Foundation members say the city is breaking the law by failing to take care of the place.

“It’s demolition by neglect,” says Melanie Billig, the group’s president.

In 2005, the Flanders Foundation filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to stop the “unlawful” sale of the home. The lawsuit argues that the sale of the mansion doesn’t conform to mandates in the city’s General Plan, and also violates city policies having to do with parkland and historic preservation. It also says the sale violates the California Environmental Quality Act.

Both the Carmel Planning Commission and the Environmental Impact Report agree that a long-term lease would do the least environmental damage to the mansion and surrounding parkland. Additionally, the state Office of Historic Preservation the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the California Preservation Foundation have written several letters asking the city to repair the mansion, open it to the pubic and maintain it in public ownership.

On Thursday, Jan. 11, a judge will hear the case.

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According to the lawsuit, the city “is unlawfully ignoring its codified duties to prevent the Mansion’s demolition by neglect.”

Carmel Municipal Code section 17.32.201 mandates that designated historic resources “shall be preserved against decay and deterioration, kept in a state of good repair and free from structural defects.” The city code also says that the owner of a historic property must repair broken windows and doors, leaky roofs and pipes and vandalism.

So, say Flanders Foundation members, the city is violating its own laws.

Attorney William Conners, who is representing Carmel in Monterey County Superior Court, agrees that the house needs repairs. But, he says, code allows for a hearing process to investigate allegations of demolition by neglect.

“This hearing process has never been requested by the Flanders [Foundation],” he says. “The parties do agree that it needs some repairs. The city of Carmel says, ‘We don’t have the money to do this.’”

Conners says it will cost upwards of $1 million to fix the mansion. After sinking that much money into repairs, he says, it’s unlikely that the city would be able to find a tenant to pay $20,000 or $30,000 a month for the house.

“Economically speaking, it’s really infeasible to lease it,” Conners says. “The city has this house that’s costing them money right now—why would they simply rent it and continue the pain but at a lower level?”

Flanders Foundation members, however, say there are other ways to make money on the site, and re-open it to the public.

“From day one we have said, ‘Please don’t sell the property,’” Billig says. “Let’s work together. If not Flanders Foundation, then somebody else. Maintain it in public ownership and require them to do maintenance and restoration.”

Every month Billig gives nature walks through the Mission Trail Nature Preserve and up to the mansion. And on these walks, Billig talks about the history of the Flanders family, their home and the natural history of the place.

For the past eight years, the Foundation has repeatedly offered to raise money to restore the mansion and pay for maintenance and operational costs. Additionally, the Foundation hired consultants who prepared a business plan to renovate the mansion, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation offered to help.

To address neighbors’ concerns about traffic, parking and noise, preservationists propose shuttling people to the house and prohibiting amplified music.

But, says Conners, Carmel officials simply aren’t interested.

“The city has said all along, single-family residence only,” he says. “It’s a liability. It does require maintenance and it does require administration even if the city leases it.”

He says the city should sell it—city officials have estimated that the house would sell for $4 or $5 million. The city can then invest the money from the sale and use it to pay for capital expenses. Plus, city coffers will benefit from property taxes.

“That’s money that goes back to the city,” he says. “The building gets rehabilitated. It’s like having your cake and eating it, too. The public gets to keep the park and the mansion is rehabilitated, refurbished, and used in its historic use: a single-family house.”

But by selling the mansion to a private owner, preservationists say, the community will lose a valuable asset that should be open to all.