Daniel Van Meter's stack of old wooden beer pallets in Sherman Oaks has been cheapening the designation of city historic-cultural monument since 1978. The Column One in today's Times talks about how the pile got such official status and how it's now the subject of a fight between Van Meter's heirs and neighbors over plans for an apartment house. The family wants to clear the pallets and other accumulated junk off the lot on Magnolia Boulevard and sell to developers. Van Meter, who served time in San Quentin during World War II for failing to register as a member of the pro-Nazi Bund, erected the tower in 1951. He died in 2000.