On Tuesday, January 27, 2009, the LA City Council's voted 15-0 to approve Griffith Park as a city Historic- Cultural Momument. The only exceptions were already planned projects to expand the Autry National Center and DWP Headworks facilities and a proposed 6 month transition period for city departments to work out details of what issues require supervision of the Office of Historic Resourses. But all significant future projects in the park will be subject to historic review.
To learn more about the wealth of historically significant elements of the park that would be protected use the links below:
City Council Committee Recommendation of Approval to full Council - 2 pages
Cultural Heritage Commission Recommendation letter to City Council - 14 pages
The full Historic-Cultural Monument Application -  350 pages
Initial staff report for the Cultural Heritage Commission - 7 pages
Cultural Heritage Commission Meeting audio recording - 8/21/08
Final Staff report for Cultural Heritage Commission - Oct. 2008 - 12 pages

Already over 40 civic and environmental groups have publicly expressed their support for protecting the whole park. Click here for the list.
The LA Conservancy Strongly Supports the Designation
Video excerpts of the CHC Meeting runs 23 minutes
Valley Vote Press Release in Support - 11/13/08
The Sunday, Sept. 28th LA Times had an interesting article on the subject.

Thursday, October 30, 2008,  A special meeting of the city's Cultural Heritage Commission, attended by over 100 supporters of declaring Griffith Park a city Historic-Cultural Monument, saw the outcome they had worked for. After more than two hours of  consideration of the issue the Commission voted  3-1 to include all of Griffith Park in its recommendation to the City Council that the park receive historic-cultural monument status.

The crowd of more that 125 were heartened when Councilmember Tom LaBonge finally declared, "I'm happy to support full consideration of this nomination." He went on to say that "all items in the future will be done with oversight." And urged the crowd "that all this energy should go forward to enhance Griffith Park."   More than 58 public comment speaker cards were submitted by supporters including GGPNC President Philip Gasteier, who characterized the designation as "pure positive" and thanked the Neighborhood Council Coalition and dozens of groups who supported the nomination. GGPNC Historic Preservation Committee chair Ken Owen, and Park's Committee chair Bernadette Soter stressed that even those elements of the park designated as "non contributing" in an historic sense should still be of concern to the commission in protecting the park in the future.

Councilmember Labonge (l) and GGPNC representatives Gasteier & Owen (r) thanked the public at the SRO commission hearing.

Representatives of the DWP, and the Autry National Center were among those who raised questions about the impact of the designation on their operations within the park. And much of the debate among the commissioners before voting centered on issues relating the how the Office of Historic Resources would handle future requests by the City and others for changes in the park, especially in such areas as Toyon Canyon, a now recovering former landfill, which while a non-contributing element at this time should have future oversight to make sure its use is consistent with the Historic nature of the park.