The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday is expected to designate the former home of Marilyn Monroe, located on 12305 5th Helena Drive, as a historic cultural monument.
If the council approves the designation, it would culminate months of work to preserve Monroe’s former home since September 2023 after the property owners had sought to demolish it.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the 11th District, which encompasses the location of the property, had introduced a motion calling for the designation and action to pause the issuance of demolition permits. The application to designate the home as a historic-cultural monument has been working its way through the city process, receiving approval in January from the Cultural Heritage Commission and later from the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
The property owners challenged the city in its attempt to designate the property a historic-cultural monument.
The family sued the city and sought an injunctive relief, however, on June 4 a judge tentatively denied their attempt.
Attorneys for real estate heiress Brinah Milstein and her husband, producer Roy Bank, previously filed court papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant in which they say the city is violating the law by trying to give the home historical recognition. The pair bought the residence last July for $8.35 million and have obtained a demolition permit from the city.
According to the Milstein-Bank court papers, the couple will suffer irreparable harm without a preliminary injunction. The petition sought a court order blocking the monument designation and allowing the plaintiffs to move forward with their planned razing so they can demolish the Monroe structure to expand their current home, which is adjacent to the property.
The judge issued a tentative ruling in favor of the city, calling the Milstein-Bank motion an “ill-disguised motion to win so that they can demolish the home and eliminate the historic cultural monument issue.”
The couple will not suffer the irreparable harm they claim they will by being denied a preliminary injunction because the City Council will address the issues by the middle of this month, according to Chalfant.
Bank and Milstein filed the petition May 6, alleging “illegal and unconstitutional conduct” by the city “with respect to the house where Marilyn Monroe occasionally lived for a mere six months before she tragically committed suicide 61 years ago.”