Pasadena Directors Hold Off on Rules for Historical Buildings

Vehement opposition from homeowners and real estate agents has forced the Board of City Directors to back down from a historical preservation ordinance that opponents said would usurp their property rights.

The ordinance would have enabled the city to designate any building more than 50 years old as a “historical treasure”--with or without the property owner’s approval--if the building met certain historical preservation criteria.

The owner of a building under such a designation would have been prevented from changing the interior, exterior or landscaping without city approval.

At Monday’s board meeting, about half a dozen homeowners condemned the proposed ordinance as a “police-state tactic” that infringed on their property rights.

Hearings and Revisions

Tentatively approved two weeks ago, the ordinance was sent to the Planning Commission and the Cultural Heritage Commission this week for revisions and public hearings. Both commissions were told to report to the board in 90 days with a joint revision of the ordinance.

The ordinance was specifically designed to prevent another controversy like the one that engulfed the sale of the Blacker House earlier this year.

In June, Texas rancher Barton English enraged preservationists across the country after he bought the Blacker House for $1.2 million and began stripping it of about 50 original lighting fixtures.

English’s actions prompted the board to enact a 90-day emergency ordinance barring the removal of interior and exterior fixtures from structures more than 50 years old. The disputed ordinance sent back for revision would replace the emergency measure adopted in June to halt what preservationists called the “rape” of the Blacker House, a landmark turn-of-the-century home designed by pioneering California architects Charles and Henry Greene.

Heckman: It’s ‘Overkill’

“I know what you’re trying to do and it’s not bad,” Director Jo Heckman told fellow board members at the meeting. “The way you’re trying to do it is bad. This has been rushed through and this, to me, is an example of overkill.”

Heckman, echoing comments from the audience, said, “I’ve just spent two weeks in Russia and the way things have gone since I’ve been back, I thought I was still there.”

Pending approval of a permanent ordinance, the board voted Monday to extend the emergency ordinance, which expired earlier this month, for 120 days.

If adopted, the permanent ordinance would replace Pasadena’s Cultural Heritage Commission ordinance with much more “rigorous and stringent language,” said Paul Gleye, the city’s principal planner and primary author of the proposed law.

Limited Impact Cited

“I think a lot of people haven’t read the ordinance,” Gleye said. “It affects only the buildings of highest quality in the city. The Blacker House is a perfect example.

“The concern expressed at the meeting is not warranted by what’s in the ordinance.”

The permanent ordinance would create a new designation, “historical treasures,” for cultural landmarks. That designation, Gleye said, is intended to encompass only the finest architectural examples that have national, regional or state significance.

The ordinance lists 11 criteria for such a designation. City officials, however, said at Monday’s board meeting that the language outlining the criteria is too vague and too easily misunderstood.

The 12,000-square-foot Blacker House was built for lumber magnate Robert R. Blacker in 1907 for about $100,000. The 20-room, three-story residence sits on one acre in the exclusive enclave of Oak Knoll. It is the largest and most elaborate California bungalow designed by the Greene brothers, who became internationally known for their work in Pasadena.

Trying to Get Fixtures

A campaign by preservationists to have the original light fixtures put back in the house apparently has failed for now.

Pasadena Heritage, a preservationist group, had been negotiating with English to retrieve the fixtures and and return the residence to local ownership. The group announced earlier this month that it had been unable to secure an option on the property from English or to find a new buyer. Negotiations with English are continuing.

English, who collects turn-of-the-century decorative art pieces, says he intends to keep most of the fixtures in his private collection and sell the rest. He said he will sell the house as is when he finds a “suitable buyer.”