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# New group to fight for historic districts
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/new-group-to-fight-for-historic-districts/
- Published: 2002-07-08T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:27:22.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Conservancy group to take city-wide stance*

A new group has formed to fight a possible ballot initiative that would make the city’s historic home preservation process voluntary.

Consisting of members of the city’s Landmarks Commission and various other community leaders, the Santa Monica Conservancy organized in response to some homeowners’ attacks against the city’s landmarks ordinance.

Part of the group will consist of a nonprofit organization that will research Santa Monica’s past and provide residents with information about their neighborhoods.

The other part of the group will concentrate on advocacy — fighting the ballot initiative, solidifying the city’s preservation policies and protecting the city’s current stock of historic homes.

“This is a group of people in the community that feel it is important the we learn more about our history and exceptional architecture in the community,” said Sherill Kushner, one of the group’s organizers. “We decided to explore what is out there and what needs to be saved.”

Supporters of the group say they have long talked about the need for such a conservancy group in Santa Monica. But it wasn’t until some homeowners north of Montana Avenue opposed to a possible historic district being created in their neighborhood organized into “Homeowners for Voluntary Preservation” that landmarks supporters were spurred into action.

Conservancy supporters say the homeowners’ group is spreading misleading information about the city’s preservation policies to incite a political rebellion. They say of the six neighborhoods north of Montana with the potential for historic designation, none so far have been proposed.

Without the permission of the property owner, the city allows the Landmark’s Commission to designate single family homes as landmarks, or as having historical significance. Owners of designated homes are held to stringent regulations when they want to make exterior renovations to their homes.

The commission can create historical districts in certain areas of Santa Monica where a concentration of older homes exist.

Many homes with historic value are being knocked-down throughout the city to make room for larger, more modern buildings, a recent city-sponsored study found.

Consultants who prepared a report of homes north of Montana Avenue characterized Santa Monica as losing its older historical properties and advised city officials to make decisions about how they want to preserve the remaining buildings before they are demolished or significantly altered.

Nearly two-thirds of the homes identified as historic in 1986 have either been demolished or altered enough to render them historically insignificant, officials said.

Homeowners for Voluntary Preservation is circulating a petition in an effort to allow homeowners a choice as to whether their homes should be classified as landmarks, or structures of merit. The group needs 6,000 signatures to place the measure on the November ballot.

Committee members believe the current law constitutes an unwarranted intrusion on personal freedoms. They believe the designation will cause their homes to deteriorate in value and it will prohibit them from making alterations or remodeling their homes.

Organizers of Santa Monica’s conservancy group say they want to model the effort after organizations in Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Mountains. Currently, a handful of members meet several times a week writing the organization’s bylaws, developing a membership base and launching its Web site.

They hope to formally launch the organization at a gala event in September.

“We are really fortunate in this community to have a large number of capable and learned preservationists,” Vavra said. “Not only has this whole issue — the backlash against the landmarks commission, especially — point out the need for the conservancy, it has also helped bring all these people together around the same issue and brought about a critical mass.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 8, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070802.pdf?ref=smdp.com)