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Property Rights

Important Takings Challenge to Los Angeles Historic Preservation Law "Monument" Designation

Historic preservation laws often violate constituitonal property rights, and block construction of new housing.

Ilya Somin | 5.7.2026 4:07 PM

In Milstein v. City of Los Angeles, an important case currently before a federal court in California, property owners are challenging the use of a historic preservation to block virtually all development on their land. The Pacific Legal Foundation - a public interest law firm that works extensively on constitutional property rights issues - is representing the owners, and has a helpful description of the case (PLF is also my wife's employer, but she is not involved in this case):

In April 2026, Pacific Legal Foundation joined a federal lawsuit over a home once owned by Marilyn Monroe. The lawsuit aims to prevent the government from forcing individual property owners to shoulder the financial burden of public historic monuments.

The case began in 2023, when a California couple bought an unoccupied, deteriorating property on a dead-end residential street, intending to demolish and redevelop it after purchase. They applied for the appropriate permits, which the City of Los Angeles granted without objection after a standard 30-day hold. One day later, a local government official filed paperwork to designate the property a historic monument.........

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