The battle begins again for the cottage
OCEAN PARK A case challenging the landmark status of a 102-year-old cottage on Ocean Avenue — an issue once put to bed — will be opened again after the City Council decided to re-conduct a public hearing appealing the designation of the small beach-side house.
In granting another hearing, the council avoids the risk of litigation by the appellant and property owner, the University of Illinois Foundation, which was clearly upset after the City Council held a public hearing on the appeal in June, despite a request by the foundation to postpone the hearing because only five of the seven councilmembers were present.
Following a bizarre turn-of-events in the contentious public hearing, which included a councilmember leaving the dais in frustration, the appeal ultimately failed because none of the councilmembers made a motion to either uphold or deny the appeal, ultimately killing the appeal through inaction.
“I felt it was prudent just to schedule and get it done in a substantive way,” said Councilmember Bobby Shriver on Tuesday.
Shriver and Mayor Richard Bloom were absent from the June meeting.
The University of Illinois Foundation has demanded another hearing, which will most likely be scheduled after the first day of the new year.
“The foundation is pleased we will have another opportunity for a hearing and we hope it will be before the City Council... when they will have a chance then to render a decision on the merits,” said Santa Monica attorney Chris Harding on Thursday.
Harding is representing the foundation. Councilmembers Ken Genser and Kevin McKeown voted against the city staff’s recommendation to hold another public hearing. Both councilmembers argued during the June meeting that the public hearing should not be postponed because it had already been continued a number of times.
“I think a vote meets their particular needs for having another hearing with perhaps a different set of councilmembers present,” Genser said at Tuesday’s meeting. “I think this is unfair for those members of the community that weighed on this issue that turned out for two or three prior times it was scheduled.”
The small yellow dilapidated cottage, located at 2219 Ocean Ave., was constructed in the early 1900s and is one of the old-est buildings on the block. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom cottage sits behind a white picket fence, sandwiched among multi-story buildings designed in varying architectural styles. William Hobson owned the building until his death in June 2005, after which the cottage was deeded to the University of Illinois Foundation. The Landmarks Commission designated the cottage as a landmark in August 2006 and that status was subsequently appealed by the foundation, arguing that the old cottage does not meet any of the six criteria required for a landmarks designation.
The public hearing for the cottage was postponed a number of times until the fateful June 26 meeting, when out of the five councilmembers present, only Genser and McKeown supported holding the hearing. Councilmembers Herb Katz, Pam O’Connor and Bob Holbrook argued the hearing should be postponed until a full council was available. Frustrated with the direction of the discussion, O’Connor left the dais, leaving the motion to continue the hearing at a 2-2 tie.
The tension carried on to the end of the public hearing, when Holbrook said he would not vote on the appeal, believing the council was not fair to the appellant. The appeal failed when a motion wasn’t made on whether the council should uphold or deny the appeal.
Since the appeal was filed last year, a group of residents have galvanized into action to preserve the landmark status of the building. The Save the Cottage group has so far collected more than 2,200 signatures in favor of saving the cottage from demolition.
Erin Maynes, one of the founders of the group, wasn’t pleased with the council’s decision and questioned why O’Connor walked out of the June 26 meeting. Maynes said the group is ready to fight and plans to come out to the rescheduled public hearing even though the public testimony from the June 26 meeting will be taken into consideration by the council in the upcoming hearing.
“It’s a sad day when one councilmember can circumvent the views of preservation experts, the Landmarks Commission and 2,200 members of the community,” Maynes said. “When Pam walked out of chambers during the last hearing, she gave the demolition applicants exactly what they wanted, forcing us to go through this all over again.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 30, 2007. Read the original PDF.