Photo courtesy of Four Provinces Photography

The Fairbanks family, their lawyer and a small band of supporters attended the continued hearing on their property today. The hearing was officiated by Hearing Officer Greg Palmer.

Most of the more than 6 hours of testimony taken was dominated by Building Official, Henry Huang. The Fairbanks family attorney questioned Huang about notices, orders and the list of corrections sent to Fairbanks. Also discussed were the Notice of Violation and building codes in general.

At one point, Boss Tweed Amante showed up. From reports he sat quietly, watching the proceedings. Amante, as you will recall, instigated the whole issue regarding the Fairbanks property in Old Town, when he appealed the Planning Commission decision to the City Council. When the City Council upheld the Planning Commission’s original order, Amante had his talking head, Elizabeth Binzack, Director of Community Development and the head of the building and planning departments for the city, red tag the apartments which forced the residents to immediately move out. Cited were safety issues that pertain to the modern building code rather than the California Historical Building Code that should prevail in this case.

The matter has been continued, once again, to September 22, 2011. The location is to be announced. Hopefully, they will move it to the council chambers where the hearing can be recorded and televised via the city’s website feed. In any case, we will keep you posted on the progress, or lack thereof, for the Fairbanks. As always, we wish them good luck in this matter.