It’s been 10 years since Huguette Clark bequeathed Bellosguardo, her family’s expansive Santa Barbara estate, to a nonprofit foundation, and people have been eagerly awaiting news that the property is open to the public.
Not yet.
There has been some progress in the background preparing Bellosguardo to be a venue for guided tours and special events, but on the surface, it appears to people that nothing has changed: It’s still a mysterious house on the hill.
It is a city landmark that is located on a bluff bordered by the Santa Barbara Cemetery, the bird refuge named for Andrée Clark, the Santa Barbara Zoo, East Beach, and the ocean.
The estate at 1407 E. Cabrillo Blvd. was built by the Clark family in the 1930s and owned by heiress Huguette Clark until her death in 2011 at age 104. She reportedly had not visited Santa Barbara since the 1950s.
She bequeathed the property to a nonprofit foundation to foster the arts, along with a valuable doll collection and millions of dollars in cash.
The perceived lack of action by the foundation has frustrated locals, but not as much as the decision to allow weddings at the estate while it remains closed to the public.
Santa Barbara-area residents started a petition last week calling for the property to be opened to the public, and for transparency in the foundation’s finances and expenses for maintaining the estate.
Residents are concerned that Bellosguard will be a venue for the rich and connected rather than the community asset Clark intended it to be.
After all, in its own words, The Bellosguardo Foundation, Inc. “formed to receive the Huguette Clark estate assets, to be operated as a community center to promote the arts.”
The board of trustees members were nominated by former mayor Helene Schneider, who was in office at the time the foundation formed, and her campaign consultant of the time, Jeremy Lindaman, became the executive director.
“The foundation is fully committed to opening the property to the public as soon as possible,” Lindaman told Noozhawk this week.
“As such, it is pursuing a conditional-use permit application with the city of Santa Barbara. The foundation is very near the point in the process where discretionary approval by the city’s Planning Commission is required.”
Private Weddings But No Public Tours
The foundation has allowed some private events on the property while permits for public access are pending with the city, according to Lindaman.
The Clark estate has hosted at least three special events since the Bellosguardo Foundation was formed, including a fundraising gala in 2018 and two weddings in September.
The 2018 fundraising gala was open to the public, with a cost of least $1,500 for two tickets.
The recent weddings are confirmed by city permits and dated social media posts by wedding guests, including photos identifying the venue by name or image.
The Labor Day weekend event was the wedding of Christina Huffington and Paul Needham, according to social media posts by her mother, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington.
The estate is a residential property and does not have a conditional-use permit for commercial use, according to the city Planning Department, but it does hold private events.
“Like many museums and non-profits, the foundation has allowed some private events as a source of revenue,” Lindaman told Noozhawk.
“These events seek and receive permits from the city. The revenue from these events helps the foundation maintain the property and complete the process of opening to the public.”
What is somewhat perplexing is it appears the city is giving the Clark estate permits with one hand, and saying private events are not allowed with the other hand.
Renee Brooke, a city planner, said the foundation submitted a conditional-use permit application to operate the property for commercial use such as a museum offering guided tours and occasional special events.
The city deemed the application incomplete in March, and there has been no follow-up with materials or plans since then, she said.
While a residential property can throw an occasional party, commercial uses generally are not allowed on residential property because they can affect the surrounding neighborhood in terms of increased traffic, parking demand, light, and noise, Brooke said.
However, the city approved multiple permits for the recent events at the property. The Building Department issued permits for temporary power (generators) for the Sept. 4 and Sept. 25 events, and the Fire Department gave to OK for large tents.
“Currently, the foundation website does not advertise as a special events space, and generally complies with permitting and inspection requirements when used privately,” Brooke wrote in an email.
If the foundation continues to use the property for commercial uses without a permit, such as large private events or public events with ticket sales, the city would investigate as a potential violation, Brooke said.
The foundation has allowed private tours of the estate and has been reporting event rental income since 2018: $84,650 in the 2018-19 year and $106,000 in the 2019-20 year.
“Events at the Bellosguardo estate educate the attendees and provide an opportunity for the attendees to view the art and architecture,” according to the foundation’s 990 tax forms explaining how event rental income contributes to the foundation’s exempt purposes besides providing money.
Pending City Applications for Public Access Improvements, Conditional Use Permit
The Clark estate includes a house built in the 1930s, and foundation board members said early on that the property needs accessibility improvements before opening to the public.
In January 2020, the Bellosguardo Foundation, Inc. submitted a proposal to the city to “provide guided tours of the historic home and grounds, as well as special events, on the 23.48-acre Bellosguardo property.”
The proposal includes installing temporary, portable wheelchair access ramps and portable restroom trailers, and marking parking spaces.
The property’s location means the project needs a conditional-use permit and coastal-development permit, and the plans will be reviewed by the city’s Planning Commission and Historic Landmarks Commission.
The HLC generally supported the plans at a meeting last year, but commissioners wanted changes to the parking plan.
The Bellosguardo Foundation recently put a petition of sorts on its website, asking residents to sign their names as supporters for the conditional-use permit application.
It also announced last week that an exhibit of Clark’s artwork will be displayed at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum next year.
State Attorney General Lists Foundation As Delinquent for Omitting Audits From Financial Reports
The Bellosguardo Foundation, Inc. formed in 2014, and was in IRS limbo for several years waiting for the New York probate proceedings to finalize Huguette Clark’s estate.
The foundation has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in recent years from Clark’s estate, according to IRS filings, and additional funding came from selling Clark family items at auction, including artwork, furniture and a doll collection.
Other income was reported from donor contributions, including from board members, and event rental income.
According to the most recently-filed 990 forms, the foundation’s expenses include taxes, maintenance on the property, accounting and legal services, and Lindaman’s salary.
His salary was established as $120,000 annually in the foundation’s founding documents, but the amount reported on tax forms has fluctuated from $80,000 to $150,000 per fiscal year.
The 2019-20 filings show additional employees on the foundation payroll: a full-time grounds supervisor and a full-time house supervisor.
Property taxes for 2021 totaled $563,513.94, according to the Santa Barbara County Assessor’s Office.
The Bellosguardo Foundation, Inc. is delinquent in its charitable foundation status as of October for failing to file independent audits of its finances along with its 990 forms in 2018, 2019 and 2020, according to the California Office of the Attorney General.
Annual audits are required for organizations that report $2 million or more in annual revenue, according to the Attorney General’s Office, and in these years, the Bellosguardo Foundation reported $85 million in gross annual revenue in the fiscal year ending 2018 (the year the property transferred); $3.5 million in 2019; and $3.5 million in 2020.
The Office of the Attorney General, which maintains a database of charitable trusts registered with the state, sent the foundation notice on Aug. 10, 2021, that the reports were incomplete without the required audits.
“Rejected,” the status notes for the 2019-20 documents on the registry website.
The letter requested the required audits or an explanation of why the organization was exempt within 30 days.
On Sept. 22, the Bellosguardo Foundation’s Santa Barbara accounting firm sent a late response to the Attorney General’s Office saying they did not receive the letter until early September, and asserting that the organization does not need to submit audits because Huguette Clark’s assets from the estate, including cash, do not count as revenue for reporting purposes.
“The foundation is the beneficiary of the estate of Huguette Clark (estate) which is being administered under the jurisdiction of the New York State Probate,” wrote Jody Dolan Holehouse of Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co, LLP.
“The estate has not yet ‘closed’ and fully distributed the assets to the foundation. In accordance with the decedent’s (Clark’s) will, as the assets are released from probate, they are funding the foundation. These assets are not considered revenue for the purposes of California Government Code section 125869(c) as they are the initial bestowments of the estate into the foundation.”
The assets she’s talking about are: $84.5 million in property and buildings in 2018, in addition to $550,000 in cash; $850,000 in cash and a collection of dolls and furniture worth $1.7 million in 2019; and $2.95 million from the estate in 2020.
“Our understanding is that the funding of the foundation from the estate is not considered revenue,” she wrote in the response letter.
She also requested that the state consider the reports for the 2018 and 2019 years to be complete as filed, without audits, and said the foundation is using its own accounting firm, Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co., LLP, to do an audit for the most recent year.
“Upon completion of the audit for the year ended 6/30/2020, the foundation will submit the audited financial statements to the Attorney General.”
Four days after that letter was received by the state, the Attorney General’s Office sent a notice of delinquency to the foundation. Any foundation listed as delinquent is not permitted to operate or solicit contributions in the state of California.
“Our office is currently evaluating the foundation’s audit waiver request,” the Attorney General’s Press Office said in response to Noozhawk’s request for more information.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.