By Cassandra Reinhart, Special to the Independent
After the fireworks fade, the Laguna Beach Planning Commission will again spark debate on both sides of the issue of revising the city’s Historic Preservation Ordinance at its meeting Wednesday, July 5.
Ann Christoph will be there, as she has been at almost every city historic preservation discussion in the last decade.
““There’s a million different things required for people to build houses,” Christoph said. “There are many requirements that keep people from doing what they want, and to do that in the name of historic preservation to achieve something positive is something good.”
Christoph, a landscape architect and former mayor, presented the background of historical preservation in Laguna Beach and advocated for keeping contributive, or C-rated homes as historical structures to a crowd of about 30 at the Unitarian Church Monday evening sponsored by Village Laguna.
“There is a very simple way to solve this problem. Leave the C-rated houses on the Historic Resources list and develop a set of guidelines for the treatment of those properties,” Christoph said.
Just two blocks away, Pat Sparkuhl settles into a creaky wooden folding chair outside his 1920s home at 409 Locust Street. June’s evening chill, and a coldness over the ordinance debate settle in.
“The idea is that we care about these places. It’s not that they are ramshackle places that are falling apart,” Sparkuhl said. “We care about what the lifestyle is, what the investment in the community is all about. They don’t feel that.”
These two represent the polarizingly different sides of the debate over revisions to the city’s Historic Preservation Ordinance, now a four years-long process that has become a battle over property rights. At its June 7 meeting, Planning Commissioners asked city staff to rewrite the ordinance to include an option to remove the controversial C-rated structures as Historic resources, yet provide homeowners a unique set of parameters for renovations and upgrades with the Design Review Board. The commission will eventually pass its recommendations on the ordinance revisions to the city council.
“I think there needs to be a better public relations effort on what this is,” planning commissioner Roger McErlane said at the June 7 meeting. “I think it has many advantages that people need to understand and determine whether it’s worth it or not. At this point I think it’s just fear.”
Homes on the Historic Inventory are classified as E for exceptional, K for key, and C for contributive to a neighborhood’s overall character. Historic proponents have championed keeping the designations, in an effort to maintain neighborhood charm and prevent modern development from running rampant through Laguna’s historic beach cottage culture. Former council member Verna Rollinger was in the audience at the Village Laguna presentation.
“I think if we do away with the C-rating we are going to loose those houses. If you walk up ad down Oak Street, everybody in Laguna Beach knows what Oak Street looks like: Corona del Mar. It would be a shame,” Rollinger said.
Some C-rated homeowners have pleaded with commissioners for the option to be removed from the city’s 1981 Historic Inventory, calling it outdated. They cite higher costs and constraints associated with remodeling and upkeep due to the designation, and claim the designation is a deterrent to possible homebuyers. To comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, changes made to C-rated structures must also comply with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards or face further scrutiny, and may trigger an Environmental Impact Study. Proponents say revisions to the ordinance that leave C-rated structures intact will actually increase flexibility by creating local CEQA exemptions that do not require adherence to the strict Secretary of Interior Standards.
“I’m flummoxed by the assertions of those who insist on regarding restrictions on their historic homes as a ‘taking’ and insist that it lowers the value of their homes,” said Village Laguna’s Rosemary Boyd. “Every historical home destroyed by demo or poor renovation is a ‘taking’ from the rest of us in town.”
Sparkhul, a local artist, has lived in his C-rated home at 409 Locust Street since 1979 with his wife Heather. He says he feels the city is treating C-rated structures, like his, as objects- and are not sensitive to the fact these are people’s homes.
“There are many of us on the ‘list’ who prefer to not be on the ‘list.’ It is painful to see our local government dictating to the homeowner such a proposal,” Sparkuhl said. “This does not help create continuity in the community; it creates resentment. Making this a mandate, and not voluntary, is wrong.”
Christoph’s presentation gave background and facts of the historic preservation efforts in Laguna, as well as justification for keeping the C-rated homes and fixing the associated problems, rather than just throwing everything out the window.
“I think they have been alarmed unnecessarily by people who don’t understand the benefits,” Chrisoph said. “I think the meetings at the planning commission are too stilted and there’s no back and forth. It’s good to hash it out a little bit. When you are talking face to face, maybe we can work things out.”
Though their views are opposing, Sparkuhl’s solution to find a compromise is similar.
“The city is trying to objectify what we have. What they miss in the discussion is the idea of dialogue, and the dialogue has not happened yet,” Sparkuhl said. “We are trying to rally people to get an understanding that there is some middle ground.”
