Crime & Safety
Permit Existed to Demolish Site of Historic Gay Bookstore
The bulldozers that tore down a row of buildings on Santa Monica Boulevard that once housed A Different Light had legal permission to level the site.
On Saturday Echo Park Patch was the first to report that the row of Tudor-style buildings along Santa Monica Boulevard--including the original site of the gay bookstore A Different Light--had been demolished.
Elizabeth Bougart-Sharkov, who heads the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Urban Design & Preservation Committee, contacted us to say bulldozers were on the site just off Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake.
NO DEMOLITION DISCUSSED AT AUG. 24 MEETING WITH DEVELOPER
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Sharkov had been part of a meeting on Aug. 24 facilitated by Council District 13 staff, where the future of the site had been discussed.
Bougart-Sharkov said the developer, Frost/Chaddock, had no immediate plans at that time to demolish the site. Some thought it deserved a city historic designation.
But Bougart-Sharkov discovered over the weekend that a permit to demolish the site had been pulled that same day, Aug. 24.
ANOTHER COMMUNITY MEETING BEING PLANNED
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Julie Wong, spokesman for Council District 13 rep Eric Garcetti, said that "even as late as a few days ago we were working to facilitate another meeting to discuss community concerns."
"The developer assured us they would not take action without notice," she added.
Clearly the firm has, though it's not clear why.
Developer Frost Chaddock has been contacted for its side of the story.
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