NC Input Requested

Commission Seeks Neighborhood Council Input
on Preservation Ordinance

The Office of Historic Resources and the Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC) invite Certified Neighborhood Councils to participate in two upcoming public hearings - on Thursday, March 20 (after 11:30 a.m.) and on Thursday, April 17 (after 10:00 a.m.) to provide input on a significant overhaul of the City's historic preservation ordinance.

The staff of the Office of Historic Resources (OHR) is proposing important changes aimed at strengthening demolition review procedures, clarifying criteria for historic designation, and enhancing notification of private property owners. The City of Los Angeles' Cultural Heritage Ordinance, originally approved by the City Council in 1962, created the procedures for the designation and protection of significant Los Angeles buildings and sites as Historic-Cultural Monuments. While the Ordinance has undergone several minor, procedural modifications, it has never been comprehensively updated to give our City a state-of-the-art historic preservation program.

The Cultural Heritage Commission held an initial public workshop on these ordinance amendments in February, and will be holding these two additional hearings on the proposed changes in the coming weeks, at City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Rm. 1010 (10th Floor). We encourage you to participate, but if you cannot attend, we welcome your written comments and suggestions on these proposals as the OHR and Commission finalize a draft ordinance for submission to the City Council later this year.

The OHR has now made available the text of the proposed ordinance changes. To review the draft ordinance and a summary of the recommendations under review by the Commission, click on the attachment at the bottom of the OHR's web site article on the hearing, at: www.preservation.lacity.org/node/94

You may also review the existing ordinance by clicking on the attachment "Cultural Heritage Ordinance" at: www.preservation.lacity.org/commission