NEWS

Family sees historic district 'dream home' as nightmare

Jill Callison
jcallison@argusleader.com

The dream home for a family who moved to Sioux Falls more than two and a half years ago has turned into a nightmare for its neighbors to the north.

Pierce and Barbara McDowell moved to 1321 S. Second Ave. 23 years ago, raising their family in a home constructed in 1924 in the historic McKennan Park area.

The couple has renovated their home twice, both times seeking approval from the city's Board of Historic Preservation before making changes to the house, which has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

People tell them, Barbara McDowell said with pride, that they have the most attractive house among those surrounding McKennan Park. In recent weeks, however, the conversation has changed.

"If I had a dollar for every person who has called or who has stopped or just random people who are in from out of town, who pull in and say who is building next door. Did the city approve this? How can it happen? It is ruining the integrity of the park," she said.

"It" is the home directly south of the McDowell structure, a two-story single-family house that will boast almost 5,000 square feet. When it is completed, said Joseph "Josh" Sapienza, who is building the house with his wife, Sarah Jones Sapienza, it will maintain the architectural integrity of the McKennan Park neighborhood within an eight-block radius. It wasn't easy.

"Maintaining a little bit of individuality and variety becomes a little bit of a challenge when you want to also respect the integrity of what exists there originally and what has existed there recently with other people that are like-minded doing the same thing," he said.

The McDowells contend that instead of adding to the intimacy of the McKennan Park neighborhood, the Sapienzas' house has taken away their privacy. Their new dwelling will totally block the McDowells' southern exposure and changes the neighborhood's character, Barbara McDowell said.

She compared it to living next to a motel.

"Now we have a Super 8 motel on Second Avenue," McDowell said. "The house that was built in 1954, we could enjoy the southern exposure from the upper bedroom master suites. We could look over at the park and get natural sunlight. We could look at the stars."

The McDowells' house sits two feet from the southern lot line, the permitted offset when it was built in 1924. City officials have told McDowell the permitted offset now is five feet.

The original house on the Sapienza property was multilevel with a total of 1,811 square feet on the main and upper levels. The lot measures 69 by 143 square feet.

Both the city and the Board of Historical Preservation let her family down by approving the Sapienzas' plans, McDowell said. At the board's May meeting, Sapienza told the board he wanted to raze the house at 1323 S. Second Ave, which was considered an "intrusion" in the historic district because of its relatively modern style.

Three neighborhood residents spoke in favor of the demolition, and the board agreed that the house's destruction would not adversely effect the McKennan Historic District. The board then heard Sapienza's plans for the new house, which is set back 30 feet from the front lot line, and could see no adverse effect on the neighborhood.

"They decided this in five minutes," said McDowell, who was out of the country with her husband and could not attend the meeting.

Peter Hassenstein, who has lived on nearby East 21st Street since 1955, favored the old house's demolition. He does not, however, approve of the house going up.

"It is far too large of a house for the property and is out of character with the rest of the houses in the neighborhood," Hassenstein said. "It sticks out like a sore thumb, and it is much too close to the McDowells."

At the Board of Historic Preservation meeting, Hassenstein said he did not think the lot at 1323 S. Second Ave. should have any house built on it since it was lower than the surrounding property and had water problems.

The McDowells had considered buying the property when it came up for sale but quit when a bidding war developed, Barbara McDowell said. They did not intend to build. Instead, she wanted to turn it into a garden, one that would complement McKennan Park and also could be used for private gatherings.

Sapienza said his house also will complement McKennan Park. He said he will follow the original owners' practice of greeting wedding-rehearsal parties and offering their home as a refuge from rain or for those in need of a nearby bathroom. The completed house will have porches that extend across both the main floor level and the upper level.

"There's going to be a lot of lemonade for children and adults on that porch," said Sapienza, father of a young daughter. "And for wedding-goers who might get caught in the rain. You have to think about them. It's not just our family. Because this is our home, and we're at the age we are going to be laying roots."

Sapienza paused when asked if he thought the house was too large.

"My first inclination is, geez, maybe it is too big," he said. "The other thought is, we're not going anywhere and our parents are getting older and we can't just have a tiny bedroom to put them in. ... They need to feel they have a home here, too."

Sapienza and his wife narrowed their search for a house to five neighborhoods in Sioux Falls. He said they liked the established feel of the McKennan Park neighborhood, the greenery and the nearby undulating hills.

"Visually it just made us both more comfortable," he said. "There's a warmth about that street and that part of town. ... (We) worked very hard with designers and architects and planners to make sure that it celebrated what was happening and what had happened and what was being built and what had been built in the neighborhood already."

What they didn't do is take her family and other neighbors into consideration, McDowell contends.

She has been unable to get any support from city officials and in fact one planning office employee laughed at her, McDowell said. The newly organized Friends of McKennan Park Neighborhood Association also has offered no support, she said.

"That's not our role in regards to development," said John Paulson, the group's co-chairman. "The goal is doing things that help us get to know each other better and promote the character of the neighborhood and its beauty."

This is not the first time history and new buildings have clashed in the McKennan Park neighborhood. In 2007, a historic home at 300 E. 21st St. was demolished and some objections were made to the replacement's modern look and how close it stood to the property line.

Nor can every house in a historic neighborhood be saved. Since 2011, permits also have been issued to demolish 207 E. 26th St., southwest of the park, and 1616 S. Fourth Ave., on its east side.

The Sapienzas took a house that didn't fit a neighborhood's character and replaced it with something better, Josh Sapienza said. He described his dream house as commissioning a work of art.

"We saw what looked like an opportunity to take what looked like a home that did not fit with the architectural integrity of the McKennan Park district and create something that improved and beautified the neighborhood there," he said.

McDowell thinks differently.

"If you're authorizing the demolition of a home, the existing home should have to match a thumbprint of what was there, size and height, to some degree," she said. "The home that was there was not necessarily in keeping with the park's look. But it certainly wasn't as tall."