Council Starts Preservation Process for Apartments

The Chase Knolls Garden Apartments in Sherman Oaks received at least a temporary reprieve from demolition Wednesday when the Los Angeles City Council agreed to initiate the process for declaring it a city historic cultural monument.

Despite opposition from the owner, who said the action appeared to be an abuse of the city’s historic preservation law, the council asked Wednesday that the city Cultural Heritage Commission consider including the 260-apartment complex on the city’s list of historic cultural monuments.

“This is an absolutely incredible relief,” said Sandy Roberts, a resident who had received an eviction notice. “This gives us some breathing room.”

By acting to initiate the process for designating the apartment complex as a monument, the council effectively blocked demolition of the buildings until a decision is made by the commission.

Ken Bernstein of the Los Angeles Conservancy said the process will take about 60 days.

Preservationists noted that even if the designation is approved, the buildings could still be demolished--but only after an evaluation that could last a year.

Councilman Mike Feuer sought the designation after Legacy Partners purchased the Riverside Drive property in January and announced plans to demolish the complex and build luxury apartments, which would force the eviction of dozens of current residents.

Feuer said the council vote simply begins a process that allows more debate on the historic and cultural value of the complex, built around 1949.

He cited an analysis released Wednesday by the Los Angeles Conservancy that concluded that the buildings are “significant in the architectural history of the city as an exceptional example of a Moderne garden apartment complex.”

“It is true Chase Knolls is not an opulent movie palace, an opulent cathedral, a Craftsman home,” Ken Bernstein, director of preservation for the conservancy, told the council. “But Los Angeles is quickly learning to appreciate its midcentury architecture, its modern architecture. This is an exceptional place.”

Nonsense, responded Ben Reznik, an attorney for the owners. There is no merit at all to the argument that the dozen apartment buildings are culturally or historically significant, he told the council.

“There is no evidence before you to warrant this as a historical monument,” Reznik said. “We are concerned that this would be actually potentially an abuse of the process, inasmuch as this is a project that has been slated for demolition and relocation of tenants.”

Councilman Nate Holden conceded that he supported Wednesday’s action more because it protects a nice place for people to live than out of any conviction that the buildings are historically significant.

Legacy has offered tenants of the building relocation assistance, including as much as $15,000 for senior citizens, and many of the tenants have agreed to move, Reznik said. He also said the new project would include 40 units of affordable apartments for senior citizens.

But Feuer said it is only because the buildings are threatened with the bulldozer that they need protection.

“The fact is, until his client moved forward with the proposal to demolish this very unique 260-unit sprawling structure, there was no threat to this site,” Feuer said. “There is a threat to it now, and the [historic] designation, given the pall that that threat casts over that set of buildings, is very appropriate to consider right now.”