Laurel Park Vote Was 'Right Thing,' Duran Says

Monday night’s by the City Council to remove the from the city’s plan for was “historic," Mayor John Duran said.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in the park at 1343 N. Laurel Ave., Duran called the 3-2 council vote "doing the right thing" for the property and the city.

Mayor Pro Tempore Jeff Prang, who co-sponsored the ordinance to eliminate the affordable housing with Duran, also believes the council made the right decision.

“This property is an absolute gem,” Prang said during the news conference. “This property looks almost exactly like it did in 1914 when the house was built and there’s probably no other place in the city like it.”

Prang, who always opposed the plan to build affordable housing on the property, said West Hollywood is “terribly under-parked.” He said he believes the plan to make the property a permanent park will go a long way to correcting that.

In 2006, the City Council approved a plan to preserve the house known as “Tara,” create a park in the front of the property and to build affordable senior housing in the rear of the property. The affordable housing created controversy among residents since it went against the wishes of the late Elsie Weisman, who donated the property to the city.

With Monday night’s vote, the affordable senior housing entitlement for the property will be removed, but the park and historic preservation of the house entitlement will remain in place. 

Allegra Allison, who spearheaded the to preserve the 97-year-old colonial style house, said she was thrilled by the decision, thanking the many people who fought with her for eight years to preserve the property. She estimated that 50 people worked to save Tara.

“Last night was incredible,” Allison said at the news conference. “These three council members have the vision to see that people need parkland, as well as affordable housing. The city has been building affordable housing throughout the city, but there aren’t any parks coming along, so this is amazing and exciting and a wonderful step.”

Elsie Weisman's son, Richard Weisman, was also on hand. He said he was excited and relieved by the vote.

“My mother would have loved to have been here,” Weisman said. “There were a lot of high points that happened. A lot of major, known people have been through this house. For me, the major moment of my life came here. That was in 1926, 85 years ago. I was born right up there in that room.”

Weisman reminisced about some of the famous people who attended dinners in the house, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Orson Welles. He said growing up in the 1930s, there was “no traffic, no smog, no gangs, no guns, no drugs.”

With the affordable housing entitlement removed, the city must now get input from residents as to what they want to do with the property, as well as find funding for rehabilitating the house.

“We need to look for other revenue streams to deal with the preservation issues,” Duran said. “We also have to go through a public process and consider the environmental impacts for any potential future uses.”

After the news conference, Weho Patch caught up with Councilman John D’Amico, who cast the third vote, approving the removal of the affordable housing entitlement.

“I feel some healing by this decision,” D’Amico told Patch. “This pivot will allow new ideas to emerge that I think have been kept under the thumbs of ideas that were too big for this park.”

D’Amico predicts great things ahead for the property. “It will most likely recede into the fabric of West Hollywood life in a really nice and complementary way,” he said.

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