Preservation loses a battle—SB79 signed into law—and a star is remembered
The signing of Senate Bill 79 (SB79) by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 10 was a bitter defeat to California’s preservation community. Even a strong appeal from Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles legislators was not enough to derail the bill that would allow the construction of multistory high rises in single family and historic districts within proximity to transit stations. Although the governor raised some hopes as he took his time in signing, the outcome was expected. Once the heavily amended bill had limped out of the legislature, the political math was set. Newsom, with his eyes on the White House, was not going to let the nuances of sensible planning and local control prevent him from hoisting the housing abundance standard.
As I said in my previous column, it is my prediction the effects of this bill will be muted in Los Angeles. It will be a few years until L.A. works its way out of the chimera of poor tax policy, sclerotic permitting processes, and back in the good graces of lenders, developers, and institutional investors. That gives the city enough time to come up with an alternate plan, which is allowed in the bill, as well as five-year moratoriums for “sensitive areas” near transit identified by the city. Sacramento could also keep tweaking the bill, perhaps with further preservation protections. In the meantime, we will have to wait until the California Association of Governments draws up and releases the official maps of parcels eligible for SB79 to know which landmarks and historic districts are threatened.
So don’t expect a 5-to-7-story building to sprout up on your single family or historic district’s street anytime soon.
Farewell Diane Keaton: A preservation star
News of the death of Diane Keaton, star of iconic films such as “Annie Hall,” “The Godfather,” and “Reds” was felt particularly hard by the preservation community of Los Angeles, which lost a tireless champion for the preservation and celebration of L.A.’s rich architectural heritage. It is rare for such a high-profile Hollywood actor to provide such support for preservation causes, but Keaton, a Los Angeles native, was fascinated by and had a connection to the stories, landscapes and sites that give Los Angeles its sense of place.
Keaton not only purchased and restored numerous historic homes, including her residence designed by Lloyd Wright, but also catalogued other Spanish Revival-style homes in her book “California Romantica.” Her greatest impact, however, was through her advocacy while serving on the board of the Los Angeles Conservancy for two decades. It was at the Conservancy that she became passionately involved in the five-year fight to save the Ambassador Hotel. While this epic battle ended as too many preservation battles do, in defeat, Keaton’s 2006 farewell to the Ambassador is a cris de cœur that so many of us who fight to save our city’s history know.
“Looking at the shadow of our once glorious Ambassador Hotel, like losing a lover, I felt that familiar pounding heartbeat racing through my body, and I felt the loneliness of her last stand. I heard an echo, an echo, and maybe it was the echo of the Ambassador calling me. It was almost as if she was saying to me, she was saying, ‘goodbye, Diane, keep me in your heart, and next time, try harder.’” Farewell Diane. We will keep you in our hearts and will always “next time, try harder.”
Category: Real Estate
