Raising a Failing Preservation Grade

Anoakia estate on the corner of Baldwin and Foothill was once the home of Anita Baldwin daughter of Lucky Baldwin, founder of Arcadia. The city council in the late 1990’s razed the historic structure without consideration for the enormous historic value. – Photo by Terry Miller

By Katta Hules

The Los Angeles Conservancy has given Arcadia a failing grade in historical preservation. The Conservancy, a non-profit working on preserving and revitalizing the cultural and architectural resources of Los Angeles County, gave Arcadia five out of 245 possible points for its efforts on its most recent report card. “In an absence of a historic preservation ordinance, there’s nothing that the city can really do to protect any of the … [possibly historic] resources,” according to Arcadia’s Planning Services Manager Lisa Flores.

The city is working to remedy this. “We initiated a historic preservation effort over a year ago,” says Flores, “We conducted a city-wide … intensive level survey of all the resources in town.” The survey will “enable the city to gain a better understanding of where significant historic resources are located and to plan for their preservation,” according to the city’s fall 2015 newsletter.

The LA Conservancy sees completing such a survey as “the first step in that process,” according to Adrian Scott Fine, director of advocacy. “[C]ompleting that survey and using it as a platform to ultimately pass a historic preservation ordinance is ideally what we’d like to see happen.”

Arcadia also had the firm Architectural Resource Group prepare a historic context statement. It “tells the story of what is significant, what are the type[s] of architecture design that should be preserved in town. So it’s very catered to Arcadia,” says Flores. “That’s our effort right now: trying to figure out what our resources are like and what other resources are eligible.” The city is also conducting outreach efforts through its website and newsletter.

The Conservancy report card is published every five years, “but we update grades on our report card webpage whenever progress is made,” says Fine. The report card scores cities in LA county based on a rubric appraising the local government’s efforts including preservation ordinances, dedicated staff, surveys, the ability to designate a building a landmark without the owner’s consent and a Mills Act incentive program. “The Mills Act Historic Property Contracts Program is the single most important economic incentive program in California for the restoration and preservation of qualified historic buildings by private property owners,” according to the Conservancy’s most recent report card. The Act is a state law allowing local governments to create contracts with private property owners to guarantee the preservation of historical sites or structures.

Arcadia is not there yet. “Technically you can’t create any Mills Act programs until the city puts an ordinance into effect,” says Flores. “We haven’t gone there because we just received an internal draft [of the survey] … so we haven’t shared that with the council or the public yet.” The next step, she says, will be sharing the information and getting guidance from the city council. “There are so many subsequent preservation programs they can put into effect once they put the foundation into effect, if they want to.” There is interest in the project, she adds, or they would not have been given the go ahead.

So why is historical preservation relevant? “Historic preservation gives communities the ability to understand their origins,” says Fine. “It’s important because you don’t want to lose all your integrity, you don’t want to lose all your resources that have historical significance for the city at the time it was developed,” says Flores, adding, “It’s just a matter of defining priorities … what is more important to the community and what’s not.”

Residents who want to get a site or building considered for preservation have two options. First, they can hire a historian to do a full evaluation and initiate their own request if they think it meets the state landmark criteria. The site must meet one of the three requirements: be “first, last, only, or most significant of its type in the state or within a large geographic region (Northern, Central, or Southern California);” [a]ssociated with an individual or group having a profound influence on the history of California;” or “[a] prototype of, or an outstanding example of, a period, style, architectural movement or construction or is one of the more notable works or the best surviving work in a region of a pioneer architect, designer or master builder,” according to the California Historical Landmark Registration website.

The other option is to go through the city and “share whatever information they have that’s significant to the city staff and we can take … [that] into account,” says Flores. To suggest a site for preservation, contact Flores at lflores@ArcadiaCA.gov.

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