Cultural Heritage Commission
approves Griffith Park Preservation
Thursday, October 30, 2008,  a special meeting of the city's Cultural Heritage Commission, attended by over 125 supporters of declaring Griffith Park a city Historic-Cultural Monument, saw the outcome they had worked for. After more than two hours of  consideration of the issue the Commission voted  3-1 to include all of Griffith Park in its recommendation to the City Council that the park receive historic-cultural monument status.

The crowd was heartened when Councilmember Tom LaBonge finally declared, "I'm happy to support full consideration of this nomination." He went on to say that "all items in the future will be done with oversight." And urged the crowd "that all this energy should go forward to enhance Griffith Park."   More than 58 public comment speaker cards were submitted by supporters including Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council President Philip Gasteier, who characterized the designation as "pure positive" and thanked the Neighborhood Council Coalition and dozens of groups who supported the nomination. GGPNC Historic Preservation Committee chair Ken Owen, and Park's Committee chair Bernadette Soter stressed that even those elements of the park designated as "non contributing" in an historic sense should still be of concern to the commission in protecting the park in the future.


Councilmember Labonge (l) and GGPNC representatives Gasteier & Owen (r) thanked the public at the SRO commission hearing.
Representatives of the DWP, and the Autry National Center were among those who raised questions about the impact of the designation on their operations within the park. And much of the debate among the commissioners before voting centered on issues relating the how the Office of Historic Resources would handle future requests by the City and others for changes in the park, especially in such areas as Toyon Canyon, a now recovering former landfill, which while a non-contributing element at this time should have future oversight to make sure its use is consistent with the Historic nature of the park.

The designation now moves on to the City Council where it will likely be a matter of months before the final vote is taken.
A big thanks to all those who took the time to come down to city hall or write the Commission and Councilmember to urge support. Your voices made the difference...a big difference.

GRIFFITH PARK NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT AND PROTECTION.




There is an effort underway to designate all of Griffith Park as a Historic-Cultural monument. The status of Historic-Cultural Monument should help to keep Griffith Park the wonderful natural park that we love. The Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council, Hollywood United Neighborhood Council, Franklin Hills Residents Association, Los Feliz Improvement Association, The Oaks Homeowners' Association, the Sierra Club, and many more organizations support the efforts to preserve Griffith Park as a wilderness park, free from development. We hope you'll add your individual voice to this effort.

Griffith Park is a 4,218-acre public park. Most of the park is chaparral wilderness of rocky hills, canyons and gullies with large portions of open, rugged natural landscape. In 2005, a Master Plan draft proposed changes to this park forever. Some of the proposals include multi-level parking structures, two aerial tramways, destination restaurants and additional development.

In May, 2008 the Griffith Jenkins Griffith Trust filed an application with the City of Los Angeles to designate Griffith Park as a Historic-Cultural site. It would join New York’s Central Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, San Diego’s Balboa Park, and Washington’s Rock Creek Park (among others) as parks with historical designations. Designation recognizes the site (including existing structures, landscape, plant life, hiking trails) as important to the history of Los Angeles.

Despite the vote by the Cultural Heritage Commission the battle is not over until the City Council approves the historic designation. Even at the October 30th hearing there was continuing opposition to this designation by the LADWP and the Autry National Center.  So it is very important to let them know about your support for this application to protect Griffith Park in its entirety, not on a piecemeal basis.

For more info on the subject check these links: The LA Conservancy Strongly Supports the Designation
The Sunday, Sept 28th LA Times had an interesting article on the subject.

We need to let the City know that we support the proposal to make Griffith Park a Historic-Cultural Monument!

If you support the proposal to have all of Griffith Park designated a City Historic-Cultural Monument, please register with us by providing the following information. We will present your name to all members of the City Council prior to the Council meeting when they will decide whether or not to declare Griffith Park a City Historic-Cultural Monument. The date of the meeting has not been announced. We will post the date when it is available.

In addition to completing the form below, please contact your City Council representatives, and tell them you support Monument Status for Griffith Park.
The future of Griffith Park is in your hands.

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