The Los Angeles City Council is about to approve the demolition of a designated Historic-Cultural Monument — and the precedent threatens every heritage site in the city. They also silenced Indigenous consultation for over three years. Reverse the approval. Honor the law.

The Barry Building (HCM #887) at 11973 W. San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood is a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. It was once home to Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore — one of the most beloved independent bookstores in the city. For approximately a decade, it has sat vacant, fenced, and unmaintained — owned by the billionaire Munger family, heirs of Berkshire Hathaway.

Now the Munger family wants to demolish it. With no replacement project. They simply want to clear the lot.

If the City approves this, it establishes a demolition-by-neglect playbook that any property owner can replicate:

• Acquire a designated landmark
• Evict the anchor tenant
• Abandon maintenance for years
• Let deterioration accumulate
• Claim the building is "too far gone" to save
• Obtain a demolition permit — with no replacement project required
• This precedent does not stay in Brentwood. It threatens every heritage site in Los Angeles — including culturally significant Black, Brown, and Indigenous sites like the First Baptist Church of Venice, community spaces in Oakwood, and historic landmarks across the city.

 
The Indigenous consultation failure makes it worse.

Brentwood sits on Gabrielino ancestral land. The Indigenous tribal entity that formally consulted on this project under California state law (AB 52) raised serious concerns about tribal cultural resources at the site — including the potential presence of buried ancestral remains.

The City's response was systematic suppression:

The City's Final Environmental Impact Report claimed excavation would only disturb "previously disturbed artificial fill." But the City's own documentation confirms the artificial fill only extends to two feet depth — while the demolition project requires excavation to five feet. That three-foot gap is undisturbed native soil — the exact zone the consulting tribal entity flagged as high-sensitivity for tribal cultural resources.
In August 2022, the consulting tribal entity sent a formal demand for documentation. The City has not communicated with them since. Over three and a half years of silence.

When the public sought records of the consultation, internal communications were shielded under attorney-client privilege.
At a February 2026 Planning and Land Use Management Committee hearing, councilmembers were caught on citizen video having a private conversation on the dais while an Indigenous advocate testified about sacred site protections. They voted to reject the appeal minutes later.
Under AB 52, the burden of meaningful consultation falls on the lead agency. The City had a legal obligation to respond. It did not.

 
Councilmember Traci Park's office has driven this every step of the way.

The Barry Building falls in Council District 11. Park's Planning Director, Craig Bullock, has been cc'd on communications from the property owner's attorneys throughout this process. The PLUM Committee deferred to Park and denied the community appeal twice — in February 2026 and again on April 14, 2026. The day before the April hearing, the property owner consented to yet another time-limit extension, which the PLUM Chair approved — a procedural maneuver that keeps the City's jurisdiction alive past what appellants argue is the legal deadline.

This is billionaire interests over community heritage and Indigenous rights, executed through procedural cover.

 
We are asking the Los Angeles City Council to:

• Reverse the demolition approval for the Barry Building (HCM #887)
• Rescind the certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report, which contains documented misrepresentations about soil conditions and tribal cultural resource impacts
• Deny the demolition permit
• Restart meaningful AB 52 consultation with the consulting Gabrielino tribal entity, in good faith and with full documentation
• Reject the demolition-by-neglect precedent that would make every Los Angeles landmark vulnerable to the same playbook

Sign this petition to tell the Los Angeles City Council that we are watching — and that the law applies even when the property owner is a billionaire.

Council File: 25-1518 Statutory Deadline for Council Action: April 22, 2026

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Support the organizations who've been carrying this initiative

Defend Venice is a  supporter of this ongoing protection initiative.  We are amplifying months of documentation, legal analysis, and on-the-ground reporting by community advocates and independent journalists who have been fighting this demolition .

Angelenos for Historic Preservation (AHP) — Ziggy Kruse-Blue and Bob Blue The lead appellants. They filed the appeal, documented the Brown Act violations on video, and have been publishing investigative reports through CityWatch LA detailing every layer of the City's procedural and legal failures. Read their reporting:

• Digging Into Deception: The "Five-Foot Falsehood" and the Failure of AB 52 at the Barry Building
• Silence At The Sacred Village: How LA City Agencies Disregarded Tribal Law at 11973 San Vicente Blvd
• The Tale of Two Monuments: Neglect, Demolition, and the Price of Preservation in Traci Park's District
• Timed Out: The City Council's Barry Building Blunder and the Death of Authority
• The Barry Building Do-Over: Why AHP is Attending the April 14 PLUM Hearing Under Protest

Esotouric — Kim Cooper and Richard Schave Independent preservation journalists with a strong Substack readership covering Los Angeles landmark fights citywide. Their reporting on the Barry Building has been sharp and consistent.

• Brentwood Billionaire Blight
• Two Dangerous Decisions

Los Angeles Conservancy

The institutional preservation organization that has been documenting the Barry Building case for over a decade and continues to advocate for its preservation. Their landmark page provides comprehensive background, photos, and the timeline of the fight.

Barry Building — LA Conservancy landmark page

This petition is supported by Defend Venice, a community accountability platform documenting power, displacement, and resistance across Council District 11 and the Westside.

Page Cover Photo: Adrian Scott Fine / L.A. Conservancy