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By Anita Varghese
Staff Writer
August 14 -- South
Beach residents who want their
neighborhood designated a historic
district can see a brighter
future ahead, as Santa Monica
Landmarks Commission subcommittee
members issued friendly recommendations
Monday on how to proceed with
a historic designation application.
“We are trying to herd
cats here,” said commission
chair Nina Fresco, who sits
on the Landmarks Commission
South Beach Subcommittee with
Commissioners Margaret Bach
and Roger Genser.
“Several people are interested
in this, working with us and
getting information from us
to move forward,” Fresco
said. “At this point,
I don’t see the level
of organization that would result
in an application from them,
but they could get very excited
very quickly.”
The South Beach Tract –
an area bounded by Ocean Park
Boulevard, Hollister Avenue,
Nielsen Way and Barnard Way
– is highly valued by
residents who believe the design,
scale and age of the homes are
exceptionally unique.
With Craftsman and Victorian
influences, 109 homes in the
neighborhood have been identified
in the City’s Historic
Resources Inventory, of which
88 homes, or more than 75 percent,
contribute to the character
and fabric of a potential historic
district.
The South Beach Tract is the
last remaining intact group
of historic beach houses in
Santa Monica that once extended
from Pico Boulevard into Venice.
Much of the area was razed
in the 1960s. What exists today
was once red-tagged, but residents
saved the homes from bulldozers
and had the area zoned to discourage
large development projects.
“As property values have
risen and older generations
have moved on, the special qualities
of our neighborhood are endangered
by demolition and new construction
that is incompatible with the
scale or style of the neighborhood,”
wrote South Beach residents
Dan Rush and Mike and CJ Bigelow,
in a pamphlet they plan to distribute
to neighbors soon.
“This erosion of neighborhood
fabric has begun to take hold,”
Rush and the Bigelows wrote.
“We are losing forever
the qualities we treasure in
South Beach. Under current zoning
regulations, we can do very
little to manage the nature
of change.”
One demolition of a historic
home has been temporarily averted
thanks to a Structure of Merit
designation recently approved
by the Landmarks Commission,
but this hold will expire unless
a historic district designation
process for South Beach is set
in motion.
A historic district can be
established by a City ordinance
designed and customized by South
Beach residents to protect neighborhood
qualities, planning officials
said.
Residents, City staff and the
Landmarks Commission are empowered
to define the parameters of
this ordinance, deciding what
to preserve and allow in terms
of modernization, updates, expansion
and repair of homes.
At least 50 percent of the
property owners in South Beach
must support the historic designation
for the neighborhood’s
application to succeed.
A provision in the City’s
historic district ordinance
automatically nullifies an application
if a majority of property owners
sign a petition opposing the
designation.
The Landmarks Commission, any
person or any group may file
an application. Genser and Fresco
agreed that a faster approach
would be for the commission
to file the application at the
urging of South Beach residents,
who would also have to pay a
fee if they file their own application.
“If the commission files
the application, then the City
and staff acts upon our initiative
immediately,” Genser said.
“If the neighborhood files
the application, they may have
to create all of the documentation,
which would be a lot of work.”
Roxanne Tanemori, an associate
planner for the City, said South
Beach residents are not required
to submit extensive research
if they want to submit their
own application.
An application requires the
filer to accurately describe
the proposed historic district
and only give as much information
possible or available to make
the case for historic designation.
In conjunction with any application
filed for a historic district
nomination, City consultants
would review all information
submitted by whoever filed the
application.
Consultants would conduct a
detailed analysis to determine
exactly what the district represents
to the City from a standpoint
of historic contributions and
the existence of non-contributing
buildings.
“The amount of information
that was generated for the Third
Street Neighborhood Historic
District in 1991 was three volumes,”
Tanemori said.
“This breadth of information
was submitted by a community
that took ownership of the process,”
she said. “The budget
for the City was not there at
the time to do an analysis of
a potential historic district
in the same manner we can now.”
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