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LA Now Eligible for Preservation Grants |
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By Nina Royal
City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning Office of Historic Resources announced that the State Office of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service officially approved the City of Los Angeles' application to become a "Certified Local Government" (CLG) for historic preservation under the National Historic Preservation Act.
 This makes Los Angeles, for the first time ever, eligible to obtain state and federal historic preservation grants.
Now that Los Angeles is a CLG, the grants can provide significant support for local historic preservation activities, such as preservation plans, historic resources surveys and preservation education and outreach programs. GLG’s also receive valuable technical assistance from the State Office of Historic Preservation and are given formal authority to review and comment on nominations of sites to the National Register of Historic Places.
"This will only benefit properties in Los Angeles neighborhoods if neighborhood leadership becomes actively engaged" said Mary Benson, a historical preservation advocate, Vice President of Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council and Treasurer of the Foothill Trails District Neighborhood Council. Benson attended the State's April meeting in Los Angeles and said. "Many Neighborhood sites pre-exist their annexation to the City, sometimes by decades. If we want properties to be preserved, now is the time to bring our nominations to the attention of the Commission."
The Office of Historic Resources - Headed by Ken Bernstein, City Planning's Office of Historic Resources (OHR) says property owners have until June 29 to submit Mills Act Applications.
The Mills Act program allows historic property owners to enter into a contract with the City of Los Angeles agreeing to restore, maintain and protect their property in exchange for a potentially significant reduction in property taxes. Qualifying properties include locally designated Historic Cultural Monuments and Contributing Properties in Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs). Created in 2006, the Office of Historic Resources and the addition of specific qualifications for its Cultural Heritage Commission, Los Angeles was finally eligible to apply for Certified Local Government recognition.
LA's Cultural Heritage Commission- is working in close partnership with the Office of Historic Resource is the City's Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC). The CHC is a five member commission that considers nominations of sites as City Historic-Cultural Monuments (designated City Landmarks) and reviews proposed project work affecting existing Monuments. The Commission also makes appointments to each HPOZ Board and certifies the Historic Resources Survey for each new HPOZ.
The Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey Project is the first ever comprehensive inventory of the city's historic resources. The findings will help direct future growth and shape revision of Los Angeles' 35 Community Plans, streamline environmental review and hopefully spur heritage tourism and the marketing of historic neighborhoods. The Office of Historic Resources has created a 25 member Survey Project Advisory Committee to oversee the inventory. (Nina Royal publishes the North Valley Reporter—www.northvalleyreporter.com) _
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