Historic Hot Seat For Hinsdale Trustees?

HINSDALE, IL – The battles over the historic preservation of specific houses have ended with the advisory opinions of the village committee designated to deal with such issues.

But under Village President Tom Cauley's proposed rules, the Village Board would vote on the demolition and replacement of houses when the Historic Preservation Commission rejects such requests.

The board's vote would also be advisory.

Cauley's proposal was prompted by a recent controversy with an Eighth Street historic house.

At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, Cauley said the village must strike a balance between the effort to preserve historic buildings in the Robbins Park Historic District and the rights of property owners.

"The whole process is designed as more of a way to persuade residents not to demolish their homes, unless there is no other alternative, that the house is in such disrepair that it can't be restored," Cauley said.

He said the village also aims to build in styles that are consistent with the historic district.

"What we are envisioning is a picture book. These are the styles we encourage you to look at, not trying to have it cookie cutter," Cauley said.

Trustee Neale Byrnes said the village should avoid groupings of houses with the same style.

"I don't think we necessarily want something that's going to look like the rest of the houses in that area," Byrnes said. "If you want to do that, go to southwest Hinsdale and you can see a bunch of houses that either have one peak or two peaks. There have to be a lot of styles."

Under the proposed rules, the village would require the property owners who want to demolish their historic houses to prepare a historic and architectural impact study.

Trustee Matthew Posthuma expressed reservations about the proposal.

"If you look at the description of the report in the ordinance, it sounds quite onerous and potentially costly," he said. "I'm wondering whether there are some parameters we could put around that to make it clear that someone doesn't have to write a novel about the house."

Trustee Alexis Braden, a preservation advocate, said the Hinsdale Historical Society has already been doing such studies.

Other officials said the society does such work for $50 or $100.

Cauley said that a homeowner doesn't need to go any further than the information at the society.

"If the information is not at the historical society, arguably it's not that important," he said.

Cauley agreed to include wording that advises property owners to go to the historical society for the information.

The trustees took no action on the proposed new rules. They are expected to vote on the issue later.