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Trustees of a landmark Los Feliz house built by architect Frank Lloyd Wright must stop leasing it for private parties and wedding receptions, a Los Angeles zoning administrator decided last week.
The Trust for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, a nonprofit organization that owns the Ennis-Brown house at 2655 Glendower Ave., was forced to ask the city's permission to continue its party-rental business after neighbors complained that the affairs created excessive noise and traffic in the wealthy hilltop neighborhood.
Trustees say income from the parties is needed to help pay for an estimated $500,000 in repairs required to restore the Mayan-style, concrete block residence built by Wright in 1924. Architect Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of the builder and a member of the trust, has said that, if repairs are not made within five years, the house will suffer irreversible damage.
But zoning administrator Jack C. Sedwick ruled last Thursday that the parties and the rental of several rooms in the house to an insurance business owned by a live-in caretaker are illegal commercial uses in a residential neighborhood.
`Injurious' to Neighbors
Allowing the parties to continue would "be injurious" to other residents by lowering the value of nearby property and creating traffic, noise and parking problems, Sedwick said.
The architectural significance of the house does not "warrant commercializing of the property at the detriment of the neighbors," Sedwick said.
G. Oliver Brown, caretaker and former owner of the house, said the trust will take the matter to...