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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: 1520 Cedarhill Road: Consideration of Glendale Register Nomination and Request for a Mills Act Historic Property Contract.
1. Resolution to designate the residential property at 1520 Cedarhill Road as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, but not authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act Historical Property Contract with the property owner.
2. Resolution to designate the residential property at 1520 Cedarhill Road as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, and authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act Historical Property Contract with the property owner.
3. Motion to deny the request of the property owner to designate the residential property at 1520 Cedarhill Road as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources.
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Public Hearing
Approved for July 15, 2025 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The owner of 1520 Cedarhill Road (“Property”) requests that City Council list the Property in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources and authorize a Mills Act historical property contract. The Modern Ranch-style house was built in 1962 for Michael and Antoinette Monteleone.
On September 19, 2024, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) reviewed the nomination and voted 2-1 to find the Property eligible under Criterion 3 for the quality of its architectural design and recommended that City Council list the Property in the Glendale Register. However, HPC voted to not recommend that Council authorize a Mills Act historic property contract. Planning staff had opined, and maintain the opinion, that the Property is not eligible for the Glendale Register due to not meeting any designation criteria and should not be listed.
Years earlier, a previous owner had made the same request, which was considered at the HPC hearing of March 22, 2010. HPC made the same determination as in the current case, voting 3-2 to recommend that City Council list the Property but not 210a
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authorize a Mills Act Contract. The Property owners at the time chose to withdraw their application rather than move it forward to City Council.
RECOMMENDATION
HPC recommended that City Council vote to list the Property in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources but not authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act historic property contract between the City and the Property owner under Section 15.20.070A of the Glendale Municipal Code. Planning staff maintains its recommendation to not designate the Property (rendering it ineligible for a Mills Act historic property contract).
BACKGROUND
Historical Background
The one-story single-family residence is located on a lot at the inside corner of a tight bend in Cedarhill Road, a one-block long street just north of Kenneth Road. The J- shaped footprint of the house closely follows the shape of the street, giving the house a sinuous street profile that is unusual in Glendale. It was built in 1962 by Modern Accent Custom Homes, a Sherman Oaks based company that was identified on the building permit as the project’s contractor. Miss E. Beaumelle Hothian signed the permit, along with other correspondence to the city, as president of the company. The application states that Hothian was also listed as the architect for another property in the Rose Bowl neighborhood in Pasadena that also incorporated similar curves and rounded spaces as the Property at 1520 Cedarhill Road. However, beyond the given information, little is known about her career and other possible buildings she may have designed.
The house was built for Michael and Antoinette Monteleone and their two youngest daughters. The Monteleones ran a meat distribution company on San Fernando Road.
While still living in West Los Angeles, they purchased the parcel in the 1950s with the intent to build their residence in Glendale. After her husband’s death, Antoinette continued to live in the house until her passing in 2008, at which time it was bought by the Kevin and Ruth Ann Frank, who owned the property for a short time before selling it to the current owners. Neither the Monteleones, despite their longtime presence in the Glendale community as residents and business owners, nor any subsequent owners appear to have had a direct impact on the history or development of the city in a way that could make the Property significant under Criterion 2. Additional information of interest about the Monteleones and subsequent property owners is found in the Glendale Register application (Exhibit 1).
Architectural Description
1520 Cedarhill Road is located at the southeast corner of Cedarhill Road, a curvilinear dead-end street located in the Verdugo Viejo neighborhood of North Glendale.
The property slopes down somewhat toward the south and is generally surrounded by other mid-century Ranch style properties and predominantly features drought tolerant landscaping with minimal trees.
The one-story residence has a J-shaped plan that follows the curve of the parcel. The house uses modernist design concepts to reshape the more common Ranch-style 310a
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houses popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The residence’s long, low profile is accentuated by its low-pitched hipped roof, all of which establish the horizontality that is a key feature of its style. 1520 Cedarhill, however, distinguishes itself from more traditional structures through the introduction of dramatic curves – most notably in the J- shaped form of the overall house and the bowed window adjacent to the front entry.
This curvaceous quality is even more dramatic at the rear façade, where the inner face of the curve becomes tighter, embracing an oval-shaped swimming pool that is an original feature. The low-pitched hipped roof follows the J-shape of the house. Despite having a traditional shaped form, its rough rock surface and the expansive sweep at the northern curve eliminate the crisp geometry seen at most hipped roofs, giving it a more of a rounded form and organic feel.
The use of flush-mounted sliding aluminum windows allows them to recede somewhat as design components, emphasizing the flowing sweep of the walls themselves, which is also emphasized by the wide fascia wrapping the perimeter of the roof. Most of these windows have been replaced over the years. The sense of architectural reticence established by the windows and plain stucco wall surfaces is balanced by several more dramatic features, including the bowed window bay adjacent to the entry, the raised geometric ornament at the front entry and garage doors, and the stone cladding at portions of the wall at the entry.
In contrast to the front façade, the rear wall features expanses of tall, fixed windows that follow the tight curve of the wall near the pool. Many parts of the rest of this long wall feature sliding glass doors opening to the pool deck, interweaving indoor and outdoor spaces in the manner so indicative of Southern California modernism. A simple chimney rises toward the south end of the façade, giving the house its only notable vertical feature.
The use of rock at the roof and entry is echoed in the front yard landscaping, which features decorative rocks, gravel, and round concrete steppingstones, along with drought-tolerant shrubs and ground cover. The pool and much of the paving at the rear yard maintain the emphasis on curves seen throughout the house. Originally, this was more pronounced, but some planting beds were paved with concrete over the years, though the outline of earlier configuration is still evident, and some concrete deck areas have been covered with wood decking.
Character-defining features of 1520 Cedarhill Road include:
One-story massing;
J-shaped plan;
Asymmetrical main façade;
Low pitched hipped rock-clad roof;
Continuous fascia and flat eave of varying depths that wrap all façades; Fully glazed round bay adjacent to entry;
Stucco exterior cladding;
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Decorative double entry doors with sidelights;
Decorative stone at primary entrance;
Original lift-up wood garage door with decorative bosses; and Oval-shaped swimming pool.
Alterations and Integrity
The residence at 1520 Cedarhill Road has had some generally compatible alterations over time but still retains some of the original material and the overall character of the Property. The den was extended into the rear yard in the early 1980s. The roof was replaced in 2014. Many of the windows and sliding glass doors were replaced by the current owners. In addition, wood outdoor decking and gates were installed at the rear yard. A wood privacy enclosure was installed at the street-visible elevation at the bathroom that is screened by a hedge. Front yard landscaping was updated to include drought resistant landscaping and a decorative sculpture.
Due to the minimal decorative detailing of midcentury residences, the original windows, panels of glass, exterior cladding, and roof are often the most prominent character- defining features of a residence. Although the replacement of many of the windows and sliding doors has resulted in a loss of a significant amount of original materials, the replacement windows are generally compatible with the architecture of the style.
ANALYSIS
Finding of Eligibility
After reviewing the nomination submitted by the owner and its supporting documentation, as well as visiting the site, a majority of HPC commissioners (2 out of 3) found that the property meets Criterion 3 for listing in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources. However, none of the Commissioners supported the authorization of a Mills Act contract.
Architectural Significance [Criterion 3]
To meet Criterion 3, a property must “embody the distinctive and exemplary characteristics of an architectural style, architectural type, period, or method of construction; or represent a notable work of a master designer, builder or architect whose genius influenced his or her profession; or possess high artistic values.”
HPC’s findings for Criterion 3 are as follows: 1520 Cedarhill Road features distinctive design elements of the vernacular Modern Ranch style that are uniquely articulated through its use of curves and materials. The Property breaks away from the traditional rectangular form of the style by introducing curvilinear forms that respond to the shape of the parcel. The flush-mounted windows help emphasize the curvature of the “J”-shape of the residence. The rock roof and at the entry introduce natural elements as decorative details that juxtapose the sleek and minimalist finishes of the rest of the Property. The Property retains integrity of most materials, workmanship, location, setting, association, and 510a
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feeling. It also retains the integrity of its as-built design but differs in important ways from the design shown in the original rendering, which may have been created with a different, or at least flat, site in mind.
Staff does not share the HPC majority’s opinion/findings regarding the Property’s eligibility for designation on the Glendale Register, finding a number of design features to be inconsistent with the proportions and design consistency typically found at Modern style properties, including those previously listed in the Glendale Register. For example, the stone cladding flanking the entry doors does not extend up the wall to the underside of the roof eave, leaving the stone feeling stranded on the façade and unable to provide any sense of visually supporting the roof structure that would tie it more successfully into the overall design. The consistent line of the roof eave wraps the entire house despite the elevation drop of the lot. This leads to a very high wall at the garage that feels out of proportion with the rest of the street façade. This also leads to issues with the scale of the various door and window openings at the street façade. A rendered elevation of what may be the original proposal was presented at the HPC hearing. It depicts façade and roofline treatments that indicate a flat building lot was initially envisioned. The Commission considered the possibility that some of these design issues resulted from the effort to place that design on a sloping site. The original builder and/or owner, perhaps in an effort to have a single roof form cover the entire house rather than stepping with the topography, chose to keep the roof fascia at one height rather than having the volume of the house step down with the site’s slope. While the house definitely has architectural interest and is different from most other properties in the neighborhood, these issues, along with the replacement of a large number of windows and sliding doors, led staff to find that the house is not an exemplary specimen of its style, type, or period, as required for designation under Criterion 3.
While HPC found that the Property is eligible for listing in the Glendale Register, the Commission could not support a recommendation to authorize a Mills Act contract.
Commissioner Paul supported both Glendale Register listing and the Mills contract authorization, finding the Property to be a distinctive and exemplary example of postwar Expressionist design with exceptional integrity. His motion to this effect failed to gain support. In the subsequent discussion, Commissioner Doom indicated support for listing but questioned whether the owners’ replacement of sixteen windows raised issues, including in terms of meeting the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
He made a motion to recommend listing but not recommend authorization of a Mills Act contract. Commissioner Paul supported the motion. Commissioner Cragnotti, who had expressed his belief that neither listing nor a contract were appropriate for this Property because he did not feel it is an exemplary specimen of its style or period, voted against the motion. The motion passed 2-1.
While Register listing is a requirement for issuance of a contract, there is nothing in the Municipal Code or any State legislation that requires the City to authorize a requested contract just because a property is designated. Pursuant to the Mills Act, California Government Code Section 50280, a city may contract with an owner of a qualified historical property (one that is listed/designated) to restrict the use of the property in a 610a
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manner which the legislative body deems reasonable to carry out the purposes of the Mills Act. In practice, however, approvals of contracts have gone hand-in-hand with designations since the beginning of Glendale’s Mills Act program. Of note is that two separate applications for 1520 Cedarhill Road, one in 2010 and the other in 2024, led to the same HPC recommendation despite completely different Commission membership.
This is the only property staff recalls receiving this bifurcated decision.
STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
There are no stakeholders other than the property owner.
FISCAL IMPACT
Listing historic properties in the Glendale Register has no fiscal impact. However, future property tax savings to private owners of listed historic properties under Mills Act contracts will slightly reduce City property tax revenues from the general County tax levy received from each Mills Act property.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
The project is exempt from CEQA as a Class 8 “Actions by Regulatory Agencies for Protection of the Environment” exemption and a Class 31 “Historical Resource Restoration/Rehabilitation” exemption pursuant to Sections 15308 and 15331 of the State CEQA Guidelines because it involves the designation and protection/preservation of a historic resource.
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
The names and business addresses of the members of the board of directors, the chairperson, CEO, COO, CFO, Subcontractors and any person or entity with more than 10% interest in the company proposed for contract in this Agenda Item Report are attached in Exhibit 4, in accordance with the City Campaign Finance Ordinance No. 5744.
ALTERNATIVES
Alternative 1: Designate 1520 Cedarhill Road as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, finding that the property meets designation Criterion 3 but do not authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act contract between the City and the property owner.
Alternative 2: Designate 1520 Cedarhill Road as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, finding that the property meets designation Criterion 3 and authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act contract between the City and the property owner.
Alternative 3: Reject designation of 1520 Cedarhill Road on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, finding that the property does not meet Criterion 3 or any other criteria. The Council’s rejection of designation would disqualify 1520 Cedarhill Road from consideration of a Mills Act contract, as designation on the Register is a prerequisite to elibility for a Mills Act contract.
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Alternative 4: Any other alternative not proposed by staff.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Prepared by:
Ani Mnatsakanyan, Planner
Reviewed by:
Bradley Calvert, Director of Community Development
Jay Platt, Principal Planner
Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1: Glendale Register Nomination
Exhibit 2: Photographs
Exhibit 3: Mills Act Application
Exhibit 4: Campaign Disclosure