EDITOR’S NOTE: The West Hollywood City Council will discuss purchasing the Log Cabin at 617-621 Robertson Blvd. during its closed session on Monday at 5:30 p.m., prior to the start of the City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Although the deliberations are closed and not televised, the public is allowed to make public comment at the start of the closed session.
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As it did in the allowed public comment period of the City Council’s closed session of January 21, 2020, the West Hollywood Preservation Alliance (WHPA) again urges the City of West Hollywood to purchase the two parcels of land at 617-621 North Robertson Boulevard. That purchase would help preserve the 2,000+ square-foot, historic Log Cabin building that has served the 12-step recovery community for many years.
Such a purchase would also enable the city to plan for future community uses – perhaps permanent affordable housing or transitional/bridge housing to address the critical issue of homelessness? – on the remaining nearly 13,000 square feet of land that surrounds the building and currently serves as surface parking.
Furthermore, the fact that the city’s 2016 commercial survey considered the Log Cabin property eligible for historic designation not only on the local level but also on the California Register and the National Register attests to the property’s architectural, social, and cultural significance. It’s that rare “trifecta” of designations that few buildings can achieve.
And we certainly believe that the City Council has the purview to initiate action to declare the Log Cabin as a local cultural resource.
It’s time to make a deal with the City of Beverly Hills and to purchase this precious land that comes with so much history and so much future potential use by the city and its residents.
