Permits Required for Bars on Windows

Crime is down and the city is beautiful. Now all San Marino has to do is keep it that way.

The City Council last week required all residents to submit plans to the Design Review Committee before installing wrought-iron security bars on windows and doors.

The committee of seven artists, architects and residents will base their decisions partly on safety, looking at the accessibility of the security system’s internal latch or panic button, which makes escape from a fire possible. But largely they will take aesthetics into consideration.

“On some of the Mediterranean-style homes, the bars look good,” Mayor Bernie Le Sage said. “But on the ranch-style homes, they don’t look right.”

Serious crimes, which include rape, murder and burglary, have dropped 5% from 1994 to 1995 in San Marino. And big, ugly bars don’t fit the city’s well-kept image, Le Sage said.

San Fernando Valley