The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to preserve Marilyn Monroe’s house in Brentwood, where the star lived and died, as a historic-cultural monument and thus save it from demolition.

The vote ended a nearly year-long saga and attempt to save the house from destruction.

Last summer, the city’s building and safety department issued a demolition permit for the house.

The City Council then unanimously approved Councilwoman Traci Park’s emergency motion to stop the demolition and begin the process of classifying the house as a historic building, CNN previously reported. Park represents the district in which the house is located.

This week’s vote to preserve the protected area is the final step in the designation process, the city’s planning authority told CNN.

The home’s owners sued the city over the issue in May, claiming “abuse of power.” A request for a temporary restraining order to stop the City Council’s vote to preserve the home was denied by a judge earlier this month, but the case is ongoing and is expected to go to trial later this fall, according to Peter C. Sheridan of Glaser Weil Fink Howard Jordan & Shapiro LLP, an attorney representing the owners.

During a speech to the City Council ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Park urged her colleagues to preserve the LA landmark, calling the house, like Monroe, “iconic.”

“There is probably no woman in history or culture who has captured the public imagination as much as Marilyn Monroe. Even after all these years, her story is still remembered and inspires many of us,” she said. “To lose this piece of history, the only home Marilyn Monroe ever owned, would be a devastating blow to historic preservation and to a city where less than 3% of historic preservation is associated with the legacy of women.”

Park said she did not take the matter lightly and spoke to residents about their traffic and safety concerns.

She said she had tabled another motion on Wednesday to review restrictions on coaches on the road and in surrounding areas.

“My team and I have been working closely with the owners to see if the house can be relocated to a location where the public can actually visit and spend time,” she said. “I remain hopeful and committed to working with the owners to see if that is possible in the future, but today we want to preserve this essential piece of LA history and culture.”

Sheridan said in a statement that neither Park nor her staff “worked closely with the owners throughout the process or at any other time to relocate the house to another location and provide public access.”

“In fact, the opposite is true,” he continued, adding, “Ms. Park has ignored the fact that her constituents – citizen and homeowner groups in the community – are strongly opposed to the designation of the house. Ms. Park has also ignored that the city has issued dozens of permits to over 14 different previous owners to alter the house through numerous remodeling projects, resulting in nothing remaining to remind us of the brief time Ms. Monroe lived there 60 years ago.”

Given the ongoing litigation, the homeowners hope the court will declare the entire process of saving the house from demolition illegal and order the city to withdraw the designation as protected building land, Sheridan said.

The Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve historic sites in the city, called Wednesday’s vote a “success.”

“This award is proof that community engagement WORKS,” the organization said in an Instagram post, thanking Park for her efforts.

The Brentwood bungalow was built in 1929 and is valued at about $8 million, according to property records. Monroe lived there for just a few months before she died in 1962 at age 36, Park said. The pop culture icon died in the home of a barbiturate overdose.

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