Historic Preservation Ordinance Hearing 9/10/09 @ 10:30AM

Please note that the time for Historic Preservation Ordinance Meeting has changed to 10:30 AM (not 8:30 am). We apologize for any inconvenience.

The floor/room location may change, but there will be people and signs posted in the lobby to alert you. Unfortunately, we won't know that until tomorrow morning.

Thank you to everyone who has already written letters. We appreciate your support. If you haven't written your letter yet, there is still time! Every letter helps!

If you’ve ever wanted to do something truly meaningful for historic preservation, now is the time to do it! Please attend this meeting to make your views known to those who will decide the fate of historic preservation in Los Angeles. Historic Preservation Ordinance Hearing

Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Los Angeles City Hall,
200 N. Spring Street, Room 1010
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(Enter City Hall from the east on N. Main Street)

Following are the details regarding the upcoming historic preservation ordinance hearing. If you need to be reminded of the background of this issue, please click here.

Please be sure to leave plenty of time to get through security on the first floor. We are expecting a large number of people from both sides of the issue to come at about the same time. Also, all people entering City Hall must have a picture ID, such as a driver’s license.

Also, be sure to allow enough time for parking and walking to City Hall. There are ample pay parking lots located all around City Hall, but the most affordable lots are a few blocks away.

You need not speak if you do not care to, however, your presence there IS very important! Everyone who chooses to speak will be given only one minute to address the Planning Commission. For this reason, it is important to have your comments and thoughts organized. Please feel free to read your statement.

Your appeal for the preservation of interiors is paramount - - especially the interiors of commercial buildings, as those are the spaces most threatened by the few downtown interests who want to destroy 47 years of preservationists’ hard work.

Other points you may choose to make could include:

*Some buildings are actually more significant on the inside than on the outside. Preservation officials should continue to review all monument interiors, so they can determine which elements merit preserving.

*Protection of interiors does not mean an automatic ban on alterations. It simply allows experts to judge what should be preserved, and to recommend changes that would cause the least harm.

*City officials have proven themselves more than reasonable in dealing with historic interiors. In recent years, dozens of downtown commercial buildings have been converted to apartments while appropriately preserving their most historic features.

*The opponents of interior review represent a small minority of monument owners – far fewer than the hundreds of owners represented by the organizations that support interior preservation.

*There are approximately 880,000 land parcels in the City of Los Angeles, and fewer than 1,000 of them are historic monuments. For those who can’t tolerate the ordinance’s restrictions, there are 879,000 non-monuments to invest in.

If you cannot appear in person on Thursday, then please write a letter in support of the current draft preservation ordinance. Use the talking points from above, but also make your appeal as personal as possible.

Please e-mail your comments to all of the following:

Ken Bernstein, Manager, Office of Historic Resources: ken.bernstein@lacity.org
William Roschen, Planning Commission President: cpc@lacity.org
West Adams Heritage Association: news@westadamsheritage.org
(who will collect and print all of the letters to hand deliver on Thursday):
Art Deco Society of Los Angeles: artdecola@sbcglobal.net

In your comments, please reference “Proposed Amendments to the Cultural Heritage Ordinance, CPC-2008-4918-CA.”

We thank you in advance for your support and participation in this important Los Angeles preservation issue.

Sincerely,

Rory Cunningham, President
Art Deco Society of Los Angeles