Foes Step Up Drive Against Melrose Hill Historic Zone

The leading opponent of a drive to preserve the architectural integrity of a secluded Hollywood neighborhood plans to boycott a neighborhood meeting on the proposal.

The meeting will be held July 30 at 6:30 in Melrose Hill, but Natalia Yermilov said that she has had it with meetings on the topic.

“This used to be a nice, quiet neighborly area,” Yermilov said. “Now we are divided. It is a like a war zone.”

Yermilov, a bookkeeper who lives at 4962 Marathon St., is the leader of a small band of homeowners trying to defeat a proposal to declare her home and 41 others in Melrose Hill an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.

Shunned at Meeting

She said she decided not to attend the meeting because she has been treated badly by people in favor of the zone.

“They have shunned me at meetings and one woman even questioned my citizenship,” said Yermilov, a naturalized American who declined to name her native country.

Melrose Hill is located in southeast Hollywood on three streets, Melrose Hill West and North and Marathon Street between Oxford Avenue and Hobart Boulevard.

Homes there, built between 1910 and 1926, have been maintained in their original architectural styles--and a majority of the homeowners want to keep it that way.

Advisory Role

If the overlay zone designation is approved by the city, residents would be given a strong advisory role in any proposed demolition or improvements that would change the architecture of the residences.

Edward Hunt, a leading proponent of the designation, claims the support of 31 of the 42 property owners. Yermilov got 12 of the owners to sign petitions against the zone.

Yermilov has attempted to expand the opposition by rallying people living immediately outside the area to oppose the zone designation. Yermilov has collected more than 40 signatures from people outside of Melrose Hill.

“My calculation is that if our neighbors are against it,” she said, “then the zone should not be established, because there is no doubt that the zone will be expanded once it is set up here.”

Her position is that if her house needs fixing up, she would like to decide for herself how to do it.

“I don’t want extra rules to be applied to our existence,” she said. “I would not do anything grotesque to my house. But I want to be free to make my own decisions within the laws that already exist.”

Hunt said that the meeting on July 30 will feature a speaker from the South Carthay area, one of two existing Historic Preservation Overlay Zones in the city. Angelino Heights is the other.

“We want everyone, especially those opposed to the zone, to hear about the benefits of preserving an area,” Hunt said.

“We know from studying other such zones throughout the country that they increase property values, lead to improvements in the neighborhood and develop an esprit de corps among the residents,” he said. “But we would like everyone to hear from someone directly involved in such a zone.”

The zone has been endorsed by the city Bureau of Engineers and the city Cultural Heritage Board. A city Planning Commission hearing on the proposal is scheduled Aug. 6, after which it goes to the City Council for final approval.

Yermilov said that she and other opponents will not be won over to support the project.

“It is like a bad tooth,” she said. “It should be taken out by the root.”