The State Historical Resources Commission will consider Friday whether to grant historic designation to the so-called “Last Resort,” a Tibetan-style experiment in sustainable living in Lagunitas that faces possible demolition over numerous county code violations.
The complex consists of some 36 buildings that David Lee Hoffman, who gained notoriety as an importer of exotic teas, constructed on his property at 2 Alta Ave. and 230 Cintura Ave. without proper permits.
Depending on one’s point of view, the compound is either a historically significant example of early-era ecological design and an unique art environment, or a public nuisance.
As the application to the commission notes, the complex includes “many handmade buildings and structures together read as an eclectic, ancient Asiatic hillside hamlet.”
For example, the roofs of some buildings serve as the decks or patios for other buildings above them, using all parts of a given building.
The application adds, however, that its structures aren’t an accurate representation of any historic Asian architecture. Rather, they are a product of Hoffman’s “creative liberty and memory, based on his nine years traveling Asia and elsewhere from 1963 to 1972.”
According to the application, Hoffman’s building designs also incorporate the synergistic thinking of Buckminster Fuller, an architect and theorist who was in vogue with the 1960s counterculture.
Hoffman constructed his buildings with recycled or reused materials such as wood and windows from prior buildings, reused tea chests, cobblestone from San Francisco streets, rejected bricks from the McNear brick operation in San Rafael and slate shingles from the Los Angeles estate of rock musician Don Henley.
Hoffman began constructing the buildings in 1988. That same year, the Marin County Community Development Agency issued its first stop-work order to him.
In a letter to the commission sent on Tuesday, Sarah Jones, the agency’s director, wrote that the county sent numerous notices of violations to Hoffman over the next 13 years while he continued construction unabated.
“Most, if not all the structures were built without permits,” Jones wrote, “and on May 1, 2012, the hearing officer for the county of Marin ordered the structures be removed.”
In addition to constructing buildings without permits, Jones wrote, Hoffman installed an unpermitted sewage disposal system that discharges sewage to the surface of the ground and into holding ponds; built natural watercourses without a permit; and drilled a well without the approval of the county’s health officer.
According to Hoffman’s application to the commission, the compound uses a system design that includes grey water and blackwater recycling, compost toilets and worm composting facilities.
As detailed in the application, for example, one area features adjacent compost toilets intended for use in six-month cycles — “the time required for worms chambered below them to process and transform the fecal deposits into worm cast for fertilizing on-site organic crops.”
Hoffman also used open-air moats for composting kitchen waste. County health inspectors said the open-air composting was a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the toilet threatened an aquifer and nearby streams with contamination from sewage.
In 2015, the Community Development Agency filed a nuisance abatement action in Marin County Superior Court to force Hoffman to comply with its orders to correct the violations. Judge Paul Haakenson appointed a receiver to manage the property and make the necessary changes, including, if needed, demolishing the unpermitted structures and selling the property to recoup associated costs.
In 2016, the Marin County Architectural Commission issued a determination that all 36 of compound’s structures had “architectural significance.” Hoffman then made an unsuccessful bid to get the county to apply California Historical Building Code rules to his structures instead of the county’s more stringent building code.
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In her letter, Jones wrote that the receiver considered the implications of the designation to determine whether some of the unpermitted structures could be spared from demolition, but “concluded that application of the state historical building codes would have little or no impact on certain aspects of the rehabilitation plan.”
In 2021, the court ordered Hoffman and all other occupants of compound to vacate the properties and for the receiver to retain a real estate broker to market the properties for sale.
Hoffman unsuccessfully appealed that decision. On Monday, Judge Andrew Sweet set a new deadline of June 1 for Hoffman to move off the property.
Mark Hulbert, a licensed conservation architect and one of three experts who supported compound’s application to the Marin County Architectural Commission in 2016, said that a federal historic designation would mandate additional review under the California Environmental Quality Act before any changes are made at the site.
“California’s historic resources are considered part of the environment,” Hulbert said.
In 2017, the Golden Gate Village resident council in Marin City succeeded in securing national historic status for the public housing complex as part of a strategy to block a redevelopment plan it opposed.
At the time, Mike Garavaglia, a preservation architect who assisted on the early stages of the Golden Gate Village nomination, said that once a building or district receives historic status, the California Environmental Quality Act requires an environmental impact report if a project is proposed to alter the resource. Garavaglia said the methodology for avoiding significant impact of historical resources is set out in the Secretary of Interior’s standards for rehabilitation.
Adam Posard, a San Anselmo architect who worked briefly with Hoffman to try to develop a plan to make compound safe while preserving its structures, said, “As an architect and a longtime resident of the county and a taxpayer, I think it does deserve protection.”
