Landmarks Panel Scraps Support for Sanitorium

A county commission reversed a recommendation Tuesday that buildings on the site of the proposed 272-unit La Vina housing project in Altadena be given a state historical designation.

Last April, the Los Angeles County Historical Landmarks and Records Commission recommended that 10 abandoned buildings making up the 1937 La Vina tuberculosis sanatorium receive the historical designation. But the commission reversed itself after discovering that the buildings could not be easily viewed by the public as required by state rules.

Opponents of the La Vina project sought the historical designation as a way to block the project. Earlier, other opponents won a suit against the county to stop developers Cantwell Anderson and Southwest Diversified from using their own consultants for required environmental impact reports. A hearing on the developers’ appeal of that ruling is scheduled in April.