If you are planning to purchase property anywhere in the City of Beverly Hills; or if you own property in Beverly Hills that you are planning to remodel, you need to be aware of their new laws.
In January 2012, and currently in effect, the City of Beverly Hills passed a series of complicated ordinances directed at Historic Preservation that limit your ability to change the appearance of any home built prior to 1967 without special permits and review.
The provisions are lengthy and too detailed to be summarized here. You need to go to their website and review all of the material that they have published there:
http://www.beverlyhills.org/services/planning_division/historic_preservation/default.asp
Failure to comply with these new requirements has penalties attached- both civil and criminal.