This section of North Hollywood,on LaMaida between Bellflower and Lankershim, has long been a beautiful garden spot in a tentative and fragile area. Artists, actors, older people, African Americans, and recovering alcoholics share homes along these streets that have also been home to such luminaries as Carol Burnett and the late actress Agnes Moorehead.
Shockingly, these historic properties, that would fetch millions in Carthay Circle or West Hollywood, are to be razed and replaced with Levantine designed-stucco condominiums. Gardens, Spanish tile roofs, backyards and the grace of the silent film era will be no more.
North Hollywood is in the midst of one of its periodic construction booms, but tragically it never gains anything tangible as developers jam spec junk onto the crowded streets. Neighbors no longer know one another, and the only winners are the banks and the developers. Parking garages will now line a sidewalk where children once rode bikes.
Here in Van Nuys 
i was born in the valley and i love it beatiful, like the saying goes theres no place like home.
LikeLike
I lived in the last home to be pictured. Good people all around. Even the Yoga Villa people (who just built a wall and redid their roof last summer) were great people. Even the homeowner had 2 kids, but after you consider the 2 porn shops within 3 – minute walking distance, the 4 bars in the same, and one of the busiest 6-way intersections (camarillo& Lankershim) along with all of the winos, homeless, and broken bottles in the area, it hasn’t been safe for children to ride their bikes there for more than a few years. I know I have children and we felt cloistered in our tiny little enclave of family-friendliness that these 3 homes represented. People in the area will get exactly what they wanted; more valueable real estate in terms of dollars, they just never knew it would mean giving up to mid-rise condos with granit countertops and stainless steel fridges. Goodbye, LA.
BTW, I know all of the people who sold these homes; they were good people and reluctant to do so, but between the bubble in LA and the local rot (go 4 blocks north of that and try to tell me with a straight face that there isn’t urban rot), this is better than turning them into hovels blaring mariachi music 24/7.
LikeLike
If homeowners want to make it hard to assemble properties, they can deed restrict their homes as single family for 99 years – or longer and then no matter who buys them, they can not be rezoned.
LikeLike
Sometimes the preservation of the setting is more important that preserving certyain structures. In other words, it might be important to be sure that the street patterns, parkways and existing trees are preserved. It might be too late to preserve the homes in this neighborhood, but I’m wondering what the development standards will be.
LikeLike
Why can’t the concentrate their efforts on the industrial areas around Chandler Blvd.? That area would be much better served with mid-rise condo buildings.
But I have to say, if you’re going to do this, at least build the towers relatively high (10 floors or more) with mixed-use retail on the ground floor. Make NoHo a truly walkable, car-unfriendly area. Give the Valley just a bit of concentrated urbanity so people know what it’s really like without leaving the Valley. Anyone with me, or am I nuts?
LikeLike
Sadly, this battle to save these homes has been going on for two years. The neighbors have pleaded to the City, Councilman LaBonge, and The Neighborhood Councils for assistance, but to no avail. There was an attempt to downzone the area to preserve the remaining homes; but with the loss of three more (I think), there’s not much left to be saved. Technically, the homes can be razed because the area was rezoned to allow multi-family dwelling (apartments). It has been said that former Councilman Joel Wachs upzoned the area (from Lankerhsim to Camarillo to Tujunga to Magnolia) when it was part of his district as a way to bring more seniors and non-voters to his district. (Typically, renters don’t vote as often as homeowners, unless they’re seniors, who tend to live in apartments.) It’s a travesty, really. Just two blocks south of there, West Toluca Lake thrives as a single family home hold out – it’s too bad what happened on La Maida.
LikeLike
Very Sad. I just found out yesterday that YogaVilla, located on La Maida Street, will be closing its doors on March 31st because of the construction and changes in the neighborhood. YogaVilla operates out of the beautiful, historic La Maida House.
LikeLike