Hiring of Guardian for Landmarks Eyed

Six months ago, neighbors barely saved a 72-year-old Lafayette Park mansion from demolition after the city, through an administrative foul-up, mistakenly issued a wrecking permit to a developer.

To avoid such errors in the future, the City Council will be asked today to approve a proposal to hire a full-time administrator to watch over Los Angeles’ 430 historic and cultural landmarks.

The legislation, sponsored by council members Gloria Molina and Joel Wachs, is also designed to toughen demolition permit regulations and give the city a more active role in historic preservation. City officials expect the council to approve the legislation.

“Historic monuments should be preserved,” Molina said Monday at a press conference in front of the old McKinley Mansion, a massive two-story house built in an Italian Renaissance style.

“The problem is we don’t have enough leverage to step in and protect them like we should.”

Loopholes Exposed

Molina said that the proposal came after loopholes in the city’s current preservation law were exposed by the near-demolition of the McKinley Mansion at 310 S. Lafayette Park Place. A demolition permit was issued last year for the house, located in Molina’s district, even though the owner, Jason Lee, had not filed an environmental impact report with the city.

The Department of Building and Safety had flagged the 13,000-square-foot mansion--built in 1917 by Maytor H. McKinley, a mortuary operator--as a landmark. Its address was then recorded in city files. But when the contractor gave the wrong address for the building, the permit was issued.

On New Year’s Eve, demolition began. Neighbors who saw the damage alerted the city to the mistake and a city inspector quickly revoked the permit.

But the mansion had already suffered tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

Seen as Rallying Point

Wachs, who appeared with Molina at Monday’s press conference outside the mansion, said the near-disaster would not be easily forgotten. “This building has to be the rallying point by which we save other such buildings in the city of Los Angeles,” he said.

To make sure that other landmarks avoid a similar fate, Molina proposed the appointment of a specially trained preservation coordinator to oversee all demolition permits.

Molina’s motion--which was amended and approved by the council’s Recreation, Library, and Cultural Affairs Committee--also calls for more detailed recording procedures for city landmarks and a pre-demolition check by a city inspector before a demolition permit is issued.