The latest Conservancy newsletter is now available online, as well as past editions. Our newsletter covers upcoming preservation events, preservation issues, features on the people and places of historic Santa Monica and much more.
The newsletter is published four times per year. Conservancy members get mailed a copy of each new issue. Not a member? Join today!
Click here to download the current issue.
The second-annual #Giving Tuesday – a national day of giving back during the shopping and the spending of the holiday season – may have passed, but it is not too late to participate in the spirit of giving during this holiday season.
#Giving Tuesday shows that the holidays can be about both giving and giving back. It celebrates giving…about ways to give more, give smarter, and put personal philanthropy back into the giving season.
Together, we’ll work to keep our historic places a vibrant part of the life and attractiveness of our city.
There are many ways you can support the Santa Monica Conservancy’s work on Giving Tuesday!
The Conservancy was founded to promote understanding and appreciation of the benefits of historic preservation by offering educational programs, assistance and advocacy. We are known for our popular and informative docent-led tours of the Annenberg Community Beach House and weekly historic downtown walking tours, as well as events in historic private homes and neighborhoods, and an annual lecture series – each of which brings residents and visitors in closer touch with Santa Monica’s historic places. We also work to ensure that historic preservation is a key objective in City plans, that owners receive incentives to preserve their historic structures, and that threatened buildings are saved and adapted for modern needs.
Our City’s historic places make Santa Monica a uniquely attractive beachside community, but we can’t take the survival of these special places for granted.  Decisions are made every day that put them at risk.
Thank you so much for your support!
The Mills Act, the state program that reduces property taxes on designated historic properties with approved restoration and maintenance plans, is Santa Monica’s only concrete incentive for historic preservation. The Landmarks Commission has been working to improve Santa Monica’s application and monitoring process by proposing explicit standards that ensure that contracts fulfill the intent and public purpose of the Mills Act.  In March, the City Council will be asked to consider those recommendations, and to place limits both on the value of any individual contract and on the total value of contracts approved each year.
The Conservancy Board supports the Landmarks Commission recommendations, but is adamantly opposed to the proposed limits on the number and value of Mills Act contracts. To date, 57 historic buildings have awarded these contracts, at an average cost to the city of $2,300 per contract per year.  The City’s total annual cost of this investment in the preservation of its historic properties is less than 0.3 % of property tax receipts!
Given Santa Monica’s high property values, some are concerned that the impact of the Mills Act on the City budget could be much greater in the future. We believe that the data does not support that concern.  Fewer than 10% of the City’s properties are potentially eligible for the Mills Act, and only a small percentage of these are likely to seek designation. Furthermore, we do not see evidence of a rush to apply. In the 22-year life of the program, only two years – 2005 and 2006 – had more than 5 contracts approved.
Why, then, is the Conservancy so concerned about a cap on the contracts? We believe it will create a disincentive to designate and apply for a contract because of factors out of the property owner’s control. After investing the significant funds necessary to produce an application, the owner of a modest property could find that the number of submitted applications exceeds the cap and be forced to wait for some time to re-apply. A limit on the value of a contract could also discourage a buyer from the purchase and rehabilitation of a valuable property in poor condition, resulting in another loss to Santa Monica’s historic character.
Please watch your email and the Conservancy website for additional discussion of this issue once the staff report is published!
By Barbara Kaplan
The creation of a new Zoning Ordinance is an immense effort intended to incorporate the land use goals of the LUCE into a document that will govern growth in Santa Monica over the next twenty years. A subcommittee of the Landmarks Commission will work closely with the Commission as a whole, the Planning Commission, planning staff and members of the public to advocate for language in the ordinance that supports historic preservation. Along with the Santa Monica Conservancy, the group will work to include language that recognizes the importance of protecting historic resources in Santa Monica and that provides guidance, flexibility and incentives when any historic resource is a part of a building project.
In other reports, the Landmarks Commission has recently initiated actions on several historic resources. The Junipher Building, at 301 Wilshire Boulevard, was nominated for landmark designation last December 9, and is slated for review March 10. The Post Office building at Fifth and Arizona was nominated for landmark designation on January 13 and will also be considered March 10. The Home Savings Bank building at 2600 Wilshire Boulevard, with artwork by Millard Sheets, was designated a Santa Monica Historic Landmark in December, but has been appealed to the City Council. An appeal to overturn the designation of the Mayfair Theater terrazzo sidewalk paving at 210 Santa Monica Boulevard as Santa Monica’s 106th city landmark has been withdrawn. Lastly, the 100-year-old Bundy House at 401 25th Street was nominated for landmark status at the February Landmarks Commission meeting.
The Landmarks Commission is also pleased to congratulate the Santa Monica Conservancy and their perseverance in completing the entitlement process for the Shotgun House, a Designated Historic Landmark, thus allowing its relocation and restoration process to proceed.
At its August 27 meeting, the City Council approved a preservation covenant for the former Post Office building at 1248 5th Street and assumed responsibility for the enforcement of the covenant. This cleared the way for the Postal Service to put the property up for sale, and the sign went up on the Arizona Street side of the building the next morning.
The Conservancy Board of Directors strongly supported this action by the Council, which addresses concerns that the Post Office might have been sold without a mechanism in place to prevent inappropriate alterations to the building. The new owner will be required to submit any proposed changes for the exterior and the lobby for review, as would be required of any structure designated under our Landmark Ordinance. The covenant’s description of the building’s character-defining features was developed by the Landmarks Commission, which is expected to nominate the building as a City Landmark once it is privately owned. This action will make the property eligible for preservation incentives such as the Mills Act.
Since the Postal Service announced its intention to close the Downtown Post Office over a year ago, the Santa Monica Conservancy has played an active role in opposing the closure and insisting on detailed plans for the preservation of the building. When appeals of the decision to close the Post Office were denied, the Conservancy was granted Section 106 Consulting Party status, giving us an advisory role in the process for determining conditions on future alteration of the building. We have made numerous statements to the Landmarks Commission urging a proactive role in protection of the building and expressing our support for the City’s assumption of responsibility for the covenant. The City of Los Angeles did the same when the historic Venice Post Office was sold in 2012.
The Conservancy has also made every effort to make the public aware of the process which was taking place and the importance of protecting the structure in any future adaptive reuse. A Conservancy rally at the 5th Street location on its last day of operation drew nearly 100 people, some of whom were unaware that the facility was to be closed.
Santa Monica is a city that prides itself on preserving its historic places. The Post Office building, as one of three Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects in the City, is an important a part of our history. The City’s acceptance of responsibility for the covenant ensures that the building’s future adaptive reuse will retain its historic character and will continue to communicate the story of the WPA era to our community.
The Santa Monica Conservancy announces a $1.6 million capital campaign to create a new, professionally staffed Preservation Resource Center in a rehabilitated shotgun house. Campaign funds will also be used to expand programming, including an innovative local history curriculum in Santa Monica schools, and support the ongoing operation of the new Center. To date, the Campaign has raised $860,000 in contributions from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Mark Benjamin Foundation, the National Trust of Historic Preservation, the Friends of Heritage Preservation, and the City of Santa Monica, as well as from generous businesses and individuals. The campaign will enter its public phase as the Conservancy begins a year-long celebration of its decade of leadership in preservation.
Click here to donate to the campaign!
“We have accomplished a great deal in 10 years as an all-volunteer organization. The time has come to hire professional staff and open a site easily accessible to those who want to learn more about historic preservation,” said Carol Lemlein, President of the Santa Monica Conservancy. After a successful bid to lease the landmark 1890s shotgun house owned by the City, the Conservancy agreed to rehabilitate the house and relocate it to city property across from the Ocean Park Library at 2nd Street and Norman Place, a neighborhood with other landmark buildings reflecting the history of Santa Monica. “By establishing our Preservation Resource Center in this small historic house, we will provide an instructive model of the adaptive reuse of a structure that many might have thought had long outlived its usefulness,” Lemlein added.
Rendering of the Preservation Resource Center by Fonda-Bonardi and Holman Architects
The local history curriculum, “Building a Neighborhood,” is the brainchild of Santa Monica Landmarks Commissioner and Conservancy board member Nina Fresco. Geared to third grade students and fulfilling California Standards for social studies and the visual arts, the curriculum gives students an understanding of how the story of a community and its residents is reflected in the changing materials, styles, and uses of its buildings. The lessons are interactive, using kits that provide students the opportunity to build models of actual homes in the city’s Third Street Neighborhood Historic District.
Click here to donate to the campaign
For more information about the Preservation Resource Center or other aspects of the Campaign, send email to info@smconservancy.org or leave a message at 310-496-3146.
About the Santa Monica Conservancy: Founded in 2002, the nonprofit Santa Monica Conservancy works to promote public understanding and appreciation of the cultural, social, economic and environmental benefits of historic preservation. The Conservancy developed the weekly Historic Walking Tour of Downtown and the popular docent program at the Beach House, as well as tours of Adelaide Drive, the Third Street Historic District, Palisades Park, mid-century homes in Santa Monica Canyon, and most recently “Living in a Landmark,” demonstrating how landmark homes have been adapted to meet the needs of their current owners. In addition to these educational programs, the Conservancy has led efforts to improve incentives for preservation and make the processes for landmarking and adaptive reuse easier and more attractive to property owners, and has advocated directly to save buildings that connect us more closely to our community’s heritage.
Posted September 05, 2012