Santa Monica : Demolition Plan Halted

The city staff was directed by the City Council to draft an emergency moratorium on demolition of pre-1940 structures and to help create a “peace and ecology commission.”

The emergency moratorium--to include courtyard buildings, California bungalows and similar structures that may be deemed significant to the city by the staff--is scheduled to be voted on next month and would affect plans for demolition as of Dec. 7.

The peace and ecology commission would study the effects of federal policy on the city and how the city’s environment might be protected. The city manager was directed to submit nominations to a task force that would create the commission.

The Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica collected about 800 signatures asking that a peace commission be created.

Councilman David Finkel, who proposed the commission, said, “Cities in the U.S. have a vested interest in the reshaping of the national budget” in light of what he said was the end of the Cold War and the possibility of decreased military spending. He said the commission could help influence the aims of the national budget.