Panel Urges Landmark Status for Canyon Area

The city Cultural Heritage Commission recommended Wednesday that about 31 acres of mountain property be declared a cultural landmark in an unprecedented decision that critics said represents a misuse of a law meant to protect Los Angeles’ heritage.

The commission recommended in a 4-1 vote that the upper half of Fryman Canyon, a serene 63-acre parcel of unspoiled land in Studio City, be protected from development as a culturally and historically significant site.

Studio City residents and environmentalists had sought landmark status for the entire 63-acre parcel in an eleventh-hour effort to prevent construction of 26 luxury homes planned for the canyon.

The commission’s decision, made after two hours of debate and discussion, represented a compromise that left both sides unhappy.

If upheld by the City Council, the decision will not prevent developer Fred Sahadi from building the homes. Sahadi had already planned to donate the approximately 31 acres as open space to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and build the homes on adjacent land.

Judy Marx, founder of the Urban Wilderness Coalition and leader of the campaign to stop the development, told the commission that unless it acts to save a nearby stream and forest slated for destruction to make way for the houses, “you might as well not even designate any of it.”

“What they have designated changes nothing,” Marx said. “The entire ecosystem is still in danger.”

Sahadi’s attorney criticized the commission’s ruling as an abuse of the panel’s powers, and said he will appeal the designation to the City Council because he finds it ridiculous that a parcel of land could be declared culturally significant only because of its beauty.

“I am very curious as to how you could make this finding in good faith,” attorney Benjamin Reznik told the commissioners.

“Culture is something that is person-made and society-influenced. There is nothing on the site that is society-influenced,” he said. “This is not the forum within which to implement environmental concerns.”

Reznik characterized the campaign to declare the canyon a landmark as “an attempt to stop a project, not to preserve something cultural.” He predicted that the vote will encourage a flood of applications from slow-growth neighborhood activists seeking landmark status for land in efforts to prevent new housing or businesses elsewhere.

“Don’t let yourselves be used like that,” Reznik urged the commissioners. “If you do, this will become a great tactic for anyone wanting to stop a development that’s been approved already.”

Sahadi’s project was approved by city officials in 1985 after nearly seven years of planning and more than 25 public hearings. Grading permits were issued in 1988.

Typically, designation of a site as culturally significant means that the location is protected from demolition or development for up to a year. The city’s cultural landmark ordinance states that a designation can be awarded to “historic structures or sites in which the broad cultural, political, economic or social history of the nation, state or community is reflected, or which are identified with historic personages or with important events.”

Since Sahadi’s building plans do not affect the landmark area in this case, construction would not be delayed.

Commissioners defended their decision.

Amarjit Marwah, chairman of the commission, said it would not be fair to prevent Sahadi’s project from going forward since plans for the development had been in the works for about 12 years.

He said, however, that the land is significant culturally because it was once owned by Harry C. Fryman, who built and operated the Hayward Hotel and developed housing tracts in the Santa Monica Mountains. Fryman, who died in 1946, sat on the city’s Civil Service, police and harbor commissions.

Commissioner Harold Becks defended the panel’s decision to designate only half of the parcel as culturally significant, saying that the portion they protected is that most commonly used by the public. “We designated an area that is historically significant--the trail paths and that which the public had come to know.”

Sahadi faces other major hurdles before work can begin on the site.

While the commission considered declaring the site as a cultural monument, Sahadi’s grading permit expired, and the city rejected his application for a six-month extension.