Measure LL Summary

Ballot Argument

FAQs

Measure LL (full text)

Supporters

Berkeley Landmarks

State Historic Resources Inventory

Preserve Preservation

Preserve preservation in Berkeley. Measure LL preserves preservation and improves Berkeley's Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. The Landmarks Preservation Commission recommended, and the City Council adopted, the revised ordinance in 2006. As a referendum, voters must also approve the ordinance before it can take effect.

After six years of an open public process and and line-by-line consensus building both the Commission and City Council approved Measure LL by a two-thirds vote. Here's why you too should vote Yes on Measure LL.

State law has changed since the Council adopted the first Landmarks Ordinance in 1974. Now the State requires that cities have a timely and predictable process for granting or denying building permits, and CEQA -- the California Environmental Quality Act – now applies to historic resources. Key improvements agreed upon by the Commission and Council in Measure LL are:

• brings Berkeley’s Landmarks Ordinance into compliance with state law;
• requires landmarks to have integrity – authenticity;
• requires members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to have qualifications;
• requires longer time for public notice to the LPC and interested parties;
• estblishes processes for property owners to obtain a decision about whether a property is a historic resource;
• requires the LPC to make its decisions within specific timelines;
• grants the LPC authority to decide if a landmark may be demolished --authority over demolitions currently resides with the Zoning Adjustments Board.

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