from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0429dreamhome29.html

Dream house won't be leveled Owner meets Tempe deadline

Alia Beard Rau The Arizona Republic Apr. 29, 2003 12:00 AM

Juan Carrillo will keep his south Tempe dream home.

It took 13 years, but Carrillo was granted a certificate of occupancy an hour before the 5 p.m. deadline Monday. If the deadline hadn't been met, the city would have demolished the home because of complaints that it had sat unfinished for years, to the dismay of neighbors.

Carrillo, his family and various plumbers and electricians worked at a frantic pace behind the home's gates Monday.

"We got up early and we went to work," said Juan Carrillo Jr., 25. "We made sure we followed all the rules, but still did it my dad's way."

Both he and the city refused to say what had to be done to meet the requirements of a certificate of occupancy. Carrillo started the house in 1990, but his building permit expired in 1995. The city won a court case against him two years ago and the City Council voted last April to give him until Monday to finish enough work to make the house livable.

The younger Carrillo said he is proud of his father and promised the house will be finished and the family will live in it. He said he'd leave the "when" up to his father.

"My dad did something really special here," he said.

As the 5 p.m. deadline approached, the quiet, upper-middle class Corona Del Sol Estates street became a circus. Schoolchildren kept a vigilant watch out for bulldozers.

"We wanted to get in on the news and see the bulldozers," 12-year-old Geoffrey Trapp said.

Media - everything from television and newspapers to talk radio and even a local rock station - kept watch for the elusive, elder Carrillo, who told at least two reporters when he was stopped that he was his brother.

Neighbors and the curious divided into camps, depending on whether they wanted the home saved or demolished.

"I am shocked and surprised that he was really able to get so much done at the last minute," said Sandy McCauley, who has lived down the street from the Carrillo house for seven years. "But if the city says he has the house done, I trust them."

She said neighbors' biggest complaints were the constant construction and the fact that Carrillo never lived in the house. But she admitted a certificate of occupancy might not solve either of those things.

"This is a fabulous-looking work of art, it just doesn't have a red tile roof," said Dorie Duff, who lives a few blocks away. "I think people ought to get a life and get over it."

She said the city needed to find another way to deal with Carrillo instead of demolition.

"Maybe he's difficult and eccentric, so what," she said. "Are they coming for us next because they don't like our paint color?"

Realtors Warren Wheaton and Christy Quick don't live in the neighborhood, but they've kept track of the home's progress. Both defended the artistic importance of the home.

"It's free speech. It's art expression," Quick said. "There are so few people who have a vision and act on it and really stick with it year after year."

But Realtor Grady Williams had a different opinion.

"Tempe did not have the guts to do what they were supposed to do, and now they've set a bad precedent," he said. "It will cost the city millions in lawsuits because now anybody in the city can build anything they want to."

Reach the reporter at alia.rau@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7949

Please visit these sites which document David Dorn a liar and hate monger who makes up viscous lies about people he doesn't like:

Dorn Agency
Dorn Agency
Dorn Insurance
Dorn Insurance
Dorn Insuranse
Dorn Insuranse
David Dorn Agency
David Dorn Agency
David Dorn Hate Monger
David Dorn Government Snitch?