Commission Hears About Fallout from Recent Historic Preservation Ordinance Amendments

The Historic Preservation Commission heard city staff concerns about recent amendments to the Historic Preservation Ordinance during its meeting Tuesday.

“The major implementation concern that we have identified is that the establishment of landmark districts is now no longer a neighborhood drive tool that a neighborhood can propose for their neighborhood to protect the historic character of their neighborhood,” city senior planner Kevin Johnson told commission members.

“Now it’s a process that may be imposed by the city in response to somebody requesting to make changes to their house or their buildings.”

The revised ordinance, which became effective last April, requires a Historic Resource Evaluation (HRE) when a demolition or a major project affecting a building 45 years of age or older is proposed.

Prior to the implementation of the HPO, eligible landmark districts were identified without a defined process, typically upon request by a property owner.

Because of the HRE process, the city is now required to evaluate whether or not the building is eligible for either individual historical designation or for designation as a contributing structure to an eligible landmark or historic district.

The city staff has recommended removing from the HRE requirement the evaluation for new landmark or historic district eligibility and limiting this to individual eligibility only.

The staff is also recommending that window replacement be specified as a minor project unless two or more changes to the original window design are proposed. The revised ordinance modified the definition of major projects to include changing windows.

Rian Barrett, representing Pasadena Foothills Association Realtors, expressed support for the city’s move to return the landmark district process to the homeowners.

“We tentatively support the proposed staff amendments to the Historic Preservation Ordinance.”

“Most of these proposed changes will have a positive impact on homeowners’ ability to make necessary and routine upgrades,” Barrett said.

Nina Chomsky, speaking before the commission, urged the city to be more proactive in protecting and saving the city’s historic resources.

“The celebrity individual house is not the most important historic resource I think in the city. They are important but what makes Pasadena such a wonderful historic place are the landmark districts where we preserve the character and scale and historic character of the whole area.”

“What we need to do is get proactive. There’s great work to apply here. We need surveys, we need to get grants, we need to find out where these potentially eligible landmark districts are and then we need to educate and commit ourselves to that so we can save these areas.”

Pasadena Heritage’s Andrew Salimian expressed his reservations to the proposal to specify window replacement as a minor project.

“If you get a new window it’s going to be different and that’s my opinion. Even if you get a really great Anderson or Marvin wood window, it’s still going to look like a modern window,” said Salimian. “Some thought needs to be put into that.”

During the meeting, some members of the commission urged the staff to include in the proposed amendments the consideration of adding specific window types as a condition on window replacements to retain the historic character of the area.

The commissioners likewise urged the staff to be more proactive in conducting evaluation and survey of historical resources of the city.

The proposed amendments will come back to the commission in the future for voting, according to city staff.