Ralph Garside, who as a young man inherited a fortune from a wife nearly half a century his senior and moved to his seaside dream home in Bolinas, is now in hot water. Marin County code enforcement officers ordered him this month to demolish his house, garage and several accessory buildings, which they call unsafe, unsanitary and unpermitted. The Ocean Avenue structures have slipped closer to the cliff over the years, as the mesa gives way to the crashing surf.
The citation, which gives Mr. Garside until the close of February to comply, also orders Mr. Garside to abandon his septic system and clean up what the county calls an illegal junkyard. Code enforcement specialist Cristy Stanley wrote that a failure to meet these terms would result in an abatement hearing and penalties of up $2,500 per day per violation as well as fees for enforcement efforts.
Ms. Stanley and other code enforcement officers, who began their investigation in response to complaints from neighbors, have visited the property three times since last May, and issued as many notices. “Our process is to try to give them as much opportunity to come into compliance as we can,” Ms. Stanley said.
But for Mr. Garside, now 84, the demolition mandate is all but inconceivable. Visibly uncomfortable—he’s clubfooted and suffers from gout—Mr. Garside doesn’t leave the house much. His small living room, the last habitable room in the house after a storm flooded the others, is adorned with relics from a past life: a series of striking paintings, several chandeliers, the towering head of a rhinoceros and a lion coat draped across a piano, to name a few.
Last week, sitting with a stack of notices from the county on his lap, he looked out through a wall of windows onto a breathtaking—and alarmingly close-up—ocean view and said, “I feel content here.”
Mr. Garside purchased the Bolinas property in 1978, three years after inheriting millions from his wife, Nell Eichorn, upon her death. Their marriage in 1963 made the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle—Mr. Garside was 27; Mrs. Eichhorn, 78.
Raised in a trailer by a single mother, Mr. Garside said he was always attracted to wealth. “Rich people don’t need anything,” he explained. He said his wife was the one love of his life, though he was accused of marrying her for her money, and he identifies as gay.
Since his marriage, he said, he has dedicated his life to helping those in need, including many homeless who reside in Bolinas. “If I don’t help these people, who will?” he asked.
But his generosity has often been exploited, he said; at times he now offers simply to let people use his phone to call a relative or friend who can help; other times, he buys a plane ticket. “I’m happy to help people, but you have to help me,” he said.
Mr. Garside’s refined manner can appear at odds with the chaos around him. His property has a reputation for attracting heavy drug and alcohol users, and is the site of occasional confrontations and even conflagrations.
Yet Mr. Garside is making an effort to meet the county half-way: friends were cleaning up the yard last week, and have altered some of his structures. Since his citation last summer, he discontinued renting two units, which he said together brought in $2,500 per month and were his primary source of income alongside his remaining stock.
“They are trying to take away my income, and make it impossible to live here,” Mr. Garside said of the county. “Without that income, I’ll be broke.”
But enforcement specialists cited numerous violations of county code on the property, which sits in a bluff erosion zone. According to the February citation, the main house “sits directly on the outer bluff which has eroded to the extent that it has compromised the structure.” The citation says the main house is “not livable” due to both this major structural failure and the fact that the house lacks a legal kitchen and bathroom.
Other violations concern three additions to the house that have makeshift kitchens and bathrooms; two of these were built without permits. Mr. Garside, who was first ordered to vacate and demolish those spaces in June 2018, has since altered them, and in some cases has added onto them. The February letter cited evidence of habitation in January, though Mr. Garside said the tenants are gone.
Another ongoing violation, Mr. Garside’s garage, to which the county stapled an “unsafe” notice last May, continues to sink with the bluff.
In addition to the citations for unpermitted building, Mr. Garside’s structures have garnered an impressive list of code violations under the substandard and unsafe buildings section: lack of hot and cold running water, lack of adequate heating, lack of minimum amounts of natural light, dampness of habitable rooms, fire hazards, general dilapidation and improper maintenance, and a series of structural integrity concerns like defective flooring, insufficient roof supports and a deteriorated foundation.
“All such substandard [and] unsafe buildings are declared to be a public nuisance and shall be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition or removal,” the county wrote.
The property is zoned coastal-residential-agricultural, which prohibits the operation of a junkyard, defined as more than 200 square feet of material outdoors. Yet the county states that the property is being operated as a junkyard, with scrap materials, vehicle parts and outdoor materials taking up well over 200 square feet and spilling into the street in a manner that could prevent emergency access.
Lastly, the septic system is in violation of numerous county codes, and provoked the county to mandate abandonment.
The enforcement order is part of a long history of conflict between Mr. Garside and the county. In the ’90s, as the result of a settlement, Mr. Garside tore down a gazebo, a stairway down to the beach, a three-story aviary, a game room and a master bathroom.
As a policy, the county investigates only after receiving a complaint, and Mr. Garside says he was involved in a longstanding “pissing match” with his neighbor at the time, Paul Kayfetz. Mr. Garside filed a complaint about Mr. Kayfetz, alleging the latter had built an unpermitted wine cellar and that his house was both too close to his property line and within the bluff erosion zone—the area within 150 feet of a bluff along most of the Bolinas coastline.
Mr. Garside accuses the county of selective enforcement, given the fact that the neighboring property, which now has a different owner, is not facing any hearings or fines. Ms. Stanley however, confirmed that the county has an open enforcement case on his neighbor as well.
“Each case is very individual,” she explained. “We are going to pursue a more serious threat to health and safety first. In any case like this, where there is clear structural damage and the house and the structures are moving, we are very concerned.”
She continued, “I’m looking outside as it’s pouring rain, and I’m concerned for Ralph and anyone else living on that property.”