City council passed on Friday an emergency motion to apply Bob Hope's Toluca Lake house for review as a historic-cultural monument.
This move happened after the Department of City Planning alerted to the council that Linda Hope -Bob Hope's daughter and current owner of the estate on 10346 Moorpark Street in Toluca Lake-had obtained a permit that allowed for a demolition inspection.
While it's unclear if Linda Hope does, indeed, intend to demolish the structure, the permit paved way for the process. Once an inspection had been completed, Hope would have been given the green-light to obtain a demolition permit, at which point the city has no power to prevent the destruction of the home.
As such, Councilmember David Ryu introduced the emergency motion on Friday to beat the clock. As noted by Estevan Montemayor, director of communications at Ryu's office, the house can't be touched while it's under review by the Cultural Heritage Commission. "Once the process has been initiated on the council's side, the property owners can't move forward with demolition," said Montemayor.