Just south of Wilshire on Fairfax, and south of the Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in Carthay Circle, the similarly-named community of Carthay Square is seeking HPOZ status to preserve its small-scale English Tudors, Spanish Revivals, and Deco houses from what many in the neighborhood (but not all) see as the encroachment of apartment buildings and modern mansions. KCRW reports that, while 90 percent of the structures in the neighborhood have the "historic integrity" to be viable for the zone, budget cuts have stymied the process for this potential HPOZ and 10 others across the city; the city doesn't have the personnel in the planning department to go through all the paperwork.
Residents have been trying since 2008 to get the zone established; it would subject any new developments and changes to exteriors of current structures to a review by a board of residents. They were almost there in 2012, but they've been waiting in limbo since then. One neighbor who's happy about the delay? The guy who remodeled his duplex in the style of an "ancient Egyptian temple" and considers the HPOZ an affront to personal freedom.
· Carthay Square, HPOZs and the Effort to Preserve a Neighborhood [KCRW]
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