Council Gives Go-ahead to Tear Down 100-year-old Cottage

By Jorge Casuso

After two years and $50,000 worth of study, the City Council Tuesday night gave the final go-ahead to tear down a 100-year-old shotgun cottage in Ocean Park.

City staff will have 45 days to photograph the 600-square-foot wooden structure at 2712 2nd Street, which is the last remaining example of a common beach house at the turn of the century.

"What we have here is clearly a historic structure in Santa Monica," said Council member Pam O'Connor, a historic preservationist. "This is an important resource. It's a tiny resource and one of the few of its type.

"Sometimes you lose a building," O'Connor said. "Not every building can be saved, and that's the case with this one."

"It just seems that this is just one that's not going to work," said Councilman Robert Holbrook.

The council made the decision to tear down the vacant structure after it was assured by staff that it was not feasible to move it to another location or to store it until a permanent home could be found. The structure had been identified by the City as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Having photographs is a very, very weak substitute," said Councilman Richard Bloom. "If we have the structure, we can do something with it. In Santa Monica, we don't have that much physical evidence of our past. My very strong presence is to pick it up and move it and store it."

Rosario Perry, the owner's attorney, said that it was not economically feasible to keep the structure - which is one-room wide and three rooms deep, without a connecting hallway. Perry argued that it would take $100,000 to rehabilitate the building and that under rent control it could only fetch $300 a month.

"I think the owner is exhausted financially and emotionally," Perry said. "You can sell a leper colony faster than you can sell this house. No one wants to get in this mess. We'd like it removed from our lot so we could get on with our business."

Rick Laudati, co-chair of the Ocean Park Community Organization, said the City did not fully explore every option to save the building. He said that OPCO had received at least one offer to purchase and rehabilitate the house.

"This process is a mess," Laudati said. "The staff is not capable of following the direction of council."

After the meeting, Forrest King, one of the owners of the property, denounced the process, saying that City staff had encouraged OPCO and other neighbors to appeal a decision by the Landmarks Commission to demolish the structure.

"The fact that it took the city two years and over $50,000 of taxpayer money to determine that the structure is impractical to rehabilitate is an indicator that there are ulterior motives and that the landmarks process is a farce," King said after the vote.

"Any person with half a mind would be able to instantly tell you the building was too small and disfunctional for contemporary use," King said.