Landmark Cases : Santa Monica Tries to Preserve Historic Homes, Owners’ Rights

A historic Santa Monica home that is a city landmark will probably be demolished by the owner because the city has exhausted legal means of saving it.

Santa Monica’s landmarks preservation law is stricter than most cities’, but when an owner wants to demolish a historic property the most the city can do is delay the plans for a year, said Karen E. Rosenberg of the city Planning Department.

Since the one-year period has run out for the Donald B. Parkinson home at 1605 San Vicente Blvd., it appears that the city will be unable to rescue the property, which was named a city landmark in 1984. The owner has said he wants to tear it down to build a larger, more modern house.

The city Landmark Commission has praised the Parkinson home, with its red-tiled roofs and garden courtyards, as an “excellent example” of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. The commission said the home would qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, but because time to save the property was short, it proceeded only with the local landmark designation.

The home was built in 1922 by architect Donald B. Parkinson, who also designed Santa Monica City Hall in collaboration with Joseph M. Estep in 1938. Parkinson and his father, John Parkinson, were architects for the Los Angeles Coliseum, Union Station and Bullock’s Wilshire.

The Parkinson home is one of the most dramatic examples of historic residential properties that are in jeopardy in Santa Monica and other Westside communities, preservationists said.

Homeowner Rights

The property illustrates the difficulty cities have in weighing homeowner rights against the public’s interest in preserving historic places, they said.

In the past some residents have resisted efforts to give landmark status to their homes or neighborhoods because they feared that excessive regulation would result.

Santa Monica officials, however, maintain that the law is not intended to inhibit owners but help them preserve the architectural and historical value of their properties.

“When something is designated as a landmark, it should be seen as an honor rather than a hindrance,” said Rosenberg.

Mayor Christine E. Reed said the city has to establish “a balance between the rights of the owners of the properties and the rights of the rest of us. . . . I don’t know how much tougher we can get (in protecting historic properties).”

In Santa Monica, an owner need not agree to the landmark designation, while in many other cities the owner’s consent must be obtained, city planners said. The city also provides for a one-year “stay of execution” for endangered landmarks.

But even with a strong law, the city’s chances of saving the Parkinson property are “very slim,” Rosenberg said.

The city has been unable to persuade the owner, Gorossumako Okura, to preserve the 10-room Parkinson home because he apparently wants to tear it down and build a larger new home on the property overlooking Riviera Country Club, officials said.

Originally, Okura wanted to subdivide the property for two homes, but the Landmarks Commission stepped in to give the property landmark status and protection. Okura appealed, but the City Council upheld the commission’s decision.

The commission issued two successive 180-day stays of demolition, but that reprieve has expired. If the owner’s current plans to build one house on the property are approved, the demolition can proceed in December, Rosenberg said.

Neither Okura nor his attorney, Jerry Kay, responded to The Times’ requests for comment.

Santa Monica officials said the problem of saving historic homes also exists among properties that may have historic or architectural significance but not landmark status.

In some cases, notable homes have been so extensively remodeled that their original character is obliterated, they said.

For example, commissioners said that a home by noted Santa Monica architect John Byers (whose office at 246 26th St. is a city landmark) was virtually demolished in a private owner’s remodeling project. Only two walls were left standing, qualifying it as a remodeling rather than a demolition, they said.

The city is powerless to prevent changes in historic houses because it is perfectly legal for a property owner to remodel a home that does not have landmark status, said David Cameron, an attorney and the commission’s authority on local history.

And even when a building has landmark status, commissioners said, city restrictions extend only to the exterior of the building, not the interior.

Reed, who in the 1970s was instrumental in saving the historic home of Roy Jones, son of a founder of the city, for the Santa Monica Heritage Square Museum, said that any city resident can nominate a property for landmark status.

The city has 15 landmarks, including the Rapp Saloon at 1438 2nd St. It was built in 1875 and is the oldest remaining building in Santa Monica. The owners applied for a permit to either raze the structure or have it moved to another location. The City Council voted to move the building to city property, if necessary, to save it from demolition in December.

Santa Monica has undertaken a survey to identify buildings of particular historic or architectural significance. The study was conducted by consultants Leslie Heumann and Paul Gleye under a $30,000 contract that also included preparation of the historical preservation element for the city’s General Plan.

The first phase of the survey, covering about one-third of the city, found that 14 single-family homes were eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, Rosenberg said.

The city has received a $14,000 grant from the state Office of Historic Preservation for the second phase, and consultants Johnson-Heumann Research Associates are conducting the study.

Other cities and communities in the Westside also are focusing more attention on historic properties.

Beverly Hills has received $13,000 from the state and will provide $26,000 in municipal funds to survey the city to identify historic buildings, said Audrey Arlington, community development specialist.

And in Hollywood, preservationists have been active in attempts to save the area’s picturesque bungalow neighborhoods, said Christy Johnson McAvoy, director of the Hollywood Heritage Foundation.

She said that Hollywood residents have been active in saving the Janes house, the only remaining Victorian home on Hollywood Boulevard. It was threatened by commercial development but finally was moved to the back of the property, where it will become the focal point of a courtyard shopping center, she said.

Ruthann Lehrer, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a preservationist organization, said that saving historic properties is difficult because “ultimately, everything resides in the property owner’s wishes.”

She cited the Blacker House, a turn-of-the-century Pasadena landmark built by Charles and Henry Greene, who pioneered the Craftsman style of architecture. The house was purchased in May by a Texas rancher who stripped it of valuable interior fixtures.

“This was not quite demolition but really amounted to stripping and laying waste to a historic house,” she said.

The Pasadena Board of City Directors in June passed an emergency ordinance to stop what preservationists called the “rape” of the turn-of-the-century home, but in September the city sent the ordinance back to the Planning and Heritage commissions for revision after homeowners and real estate agents said the law would violate their property rights.