Planning Commission Approves Amendments to Cultural Heritage Ordinance

The City Planning Commission (CPC) on September 10 voted 7-1 to approve significant amendments to the City's major preservation law, the Cultural Heritage Ordinance.  The discussion at the September CPC meeting -- the third public hearing that the Commission held on the ordinance -- focused largely on a single issue: the review of proposed changes to Historic-Cultural Monument interiors.  The Commission adopted the September staff recommendation on interiors which will make no changes to the way the ordinance has addressed interior modifications for the past 47 years.

Background

The City of Los Angeles' Cultural Heritage Ordinance, originally approved by the City Council in 1962, details the procedures for the designation and protection of significant Los Angeles buildings and sites as Historic-Cultural Monuments. While the Ordinance has undergone several minor, procedural modifications, it has never been comprehensively updated to give our City a state-of-the-art historic preservation program.  The proposed amendments are aimed at strengthening demolition review procedures, clarifying criteria for historic designation, and enhancing notifications and protections for private property owners.

The Cultural Heritage Commission held public workshops and hearings on these ordinance amendments last year. The amendments subsequently went through additional refinements as recommended by a Cultural Heritage Ordinance Working Group, convened by the OHR and the Office of Council President Eric Garcetti, that met five times between June and October 2008. The City's Cultural Heritage Commission voted on November 20, 2008 to recommend these amendements.

Recent Activity

The CPC held an initial public hearing on the ordinance on June 11, before giving direction to Office of Historic Resources (OHR) staff to continue discussions with affected parties and to report back at the July 9 meeting on 13 specific issues raised during the public testimony.  Staff worked to address these issues, and proposed several additional changes to the draft ordinance.  At the July 9 meeting, the CPC requested that staff come back on September 10 with additional refinements on the treatment of interior modifications.

Review of Interiors

Following the July City Planning Commission meeting, the Department of City Planning convened a special Working Group on Interiors, which met for more than 12 hours during July and August.  Staff is recommending an approach to the review of Historic-Cultural Monument interiors that was proposed by members of this Working Group.  Under this proposal, review of interior work would continue as it does today under the current Cultural Heritage Ordinance.  All interior permits would continue to be referred to the Cultural Heritage Commission and the Office of Historic Resources for review, as has occurred since 1962.  As in the current ordinance, the CHC could not deny approval of interior work altogether: it could only object to the issuance of the permit for no more than 180 days, with a possible 180-day extension of the objection period upon approval of the City Council. 

This compromise lessened any potential burden on property owners, while still protecting Monuments whose significant interiors are often inseparable from the building's overall architectural significance.  In practice, very few permits are referred to the CHC for potential objections -- more than 99 percent are signed off at a staff level, often the same day -- and in recent years the CHC has not objected to even a single interior modification.

Benefits of a New Cultural Heritage Ordinance

The OHR believes that the new ordinance will significantly improve upon the current preservation review process, in the following ways:

* The Cultural Heritage Commission will have the power to deny, not just temporarily delay, proposed demolitions of Historic-Cultural Monuments.

* The ordinance will create a more "up front" system of preservation review, rather than continuing to surprise owners with review of proposed work only at the "back end," at a project's permit phase.

* The new ordinance will create greater clarity for owners and make clear that certain work, such as ordinary maintenance and repair, is exempt from review altogether.

* Increasing the size of the Cultural Heritage Commission from five to seven members will enhance the professional expertise on the Commission and, by including two commissioners who own Historic-Cultural Monuments, help ensure balance and diversity of perspectives.

* Many property owners have requested greater clarity as to the specific "character-defining features" covered by a Historic-Cultural Monument designation.  Under the ordinance changes, all new Monument designations would contain a list of these features.  In addition, any existing Monument owner may request preparation of such an inventory at any time, by submitting a draft inventory to the department. 

* The new ordinance will, for the first time, ensure that property owners have the right to participate in all public hearings on the potential designation of a property as a Monument.

Next Steps

With the September 10 approval by the CPC, the ordinance will go to the Office of the City Attorney for review and possible refinement.  The CPC also voted to request that the City Attorney and Department of City Planning staff review and refine how the Cultural Heritage Ordinance provisions will interact with requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  The ordinance will most likely proceed to the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee and City Council for final approval during this year.

Attached below is a summary of the draft Cultural Heritage Ordinance's provisions, along with the current draft ordinance (included within the supplemental staff report below).