A City Council committee bypassed voting on whether comedian Bob Hope's Toluca Lake home should be designated a historical monument Tuesday and advanced a motion to the full council without making a recommendation.
Councilman Jose Huizar, chair of the Planning and Land Use Committee, said there was additional information he wanted to get before deciding on how to vote.
The committee tangled with conflicting views on designating the 15,000-square-foot home a historical monument.
The Cultural Heritage Commission voted in November against the designation, but the request for the designation came from the City Council itself via a motion from Councilman David Ryu, whose district includes Toluca Lake.
The Hope family is also opposed to the designation. Hope's daughter, Linda, told the committee it would go against her parents' wishes because the proceeds from the sale of the home are to be donated to the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation, which she chairs.
The designation would lower the value of the home, she said. She also argued that with streets and buildings named after her father, the landmark designation for their home is unnecessary. The airport in Burbank is named Bob Hope Airport.
"Overturning the commission's decision to deny would contradict my father's wishes and I know he would be disappointed if we could not sell this site for full value to further fund our foundation," she said.
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She also argued that the home was not architecturally significant as it had undergone many renovations.
Commission President Richard Barron told the committee he was swayed by Linda Hope when she appeared before the commission.
Bob Hope died in 2003 and his wife, Dolores Hope, died in 2011.
The Hopes built the French and Tudor revival style estate in 1939 and used it as their primary residence until their deaths. It was designed by architect Robert Finkelhor, with some expansions and remodeling work designed by John Elgin Woolf.
