Wednesday, June 20, 2007

First House in Van Nuys threatened

This historic house on Sylvan Street in Van Nuys was one of ten built by W.P. Whitsett in 1911 to show those he lured from "over the hill" that the Valley was a place to settle (and buy his plots of land).

But that house is now threatened with demolition, according to a Daily News article today:
"Time is short. The developer, Merabi & Sons LLC of Encino, has pulled a permit to demolish the home to build condominiums.

The article goes on to say the City is working on it:
City officials said they are exploring all legal options to save the house before a formal landmark application can stop demolition.

"I am committed to preserving the unique character of our neighborhoods and am looking into every lawful possibility to save this home," Councilman Tony Cardenas said in a statement."

Hopefully, at today's 10am City Council meeting, Councilman Cardenas will utilize Rule 23 as Councilwoman Greuel did for the Weatherwolde Castle in Tujunga when that structure was in a similar situation back in 2005. (A Rule 23 action means that there is eminent need for the City Council to take action on an item that was raised after the official agenda has been posted.)

4 comments:

Glen said...

That's not the oldest house in Van Nuys, though.

We ran across an older one while house-hunting a couple of years ago.

It was interesting - built in late 1890s, before the Tract 1000 purchase, when the land still belonged to the Lankershim wheat-farming operation.

It was a two-story house with a basement(!) and what once was a screened-in sleeping porch upstairs.

It was, if memory serves, on the west side of Lennox Ave. just below Chandler. There were a couple of other houses of the same vintage on the same block.

(I believe there are a couple of other pre-Tract-1000 survivors in other locations in Van Nuys as well, but that's a vague memory from some historical research that I did a couple of years ago, and no longer have access to.)

Peter Fuhrman said...

Why do you care so intensely about this house? It was a true eyesore, and ruined the street, and lowered the quality of life for people living near it, and, of course, lowered the value of their properties. Why are you not concerned with them, with these people's lives, with the danger to their properties of being next to a broken-down wreck? Why are you not in favor of any project that will increase the quantity of quality affordable housing in Van Nuys?
Why is it that "preservationists", if they feel so strongly, don't buy the properties they claim to love and fix them up? Why do they always insist on this cowardly approach instead? That house sat empty for years and became an eyesore. Where were the "preservationists" then? They want, like fascists, to impose their belief system on the rest of us.

Floyd B. Bariscale said...

Too late.

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_6190427?source=rss

Anonymous said...

That sucks. Maybe if the non-cowardly people like "fair dealer" gets his/her way, we'll be lucky enough to be left with nothing but overdevelopment, sprawl, cheap illegal labor and big box stores in the near future.