A plan to tear down a 96-year-old house in Elmhurst’s historic district has spurred some concerned residents to call on city officials to reinvigorate the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, a move they hope will lead to a more active role for the commission in saving homes of historic or architectural significance from demolition.
The case highlights the rights of property owners to manage their own property versus city concerns over the preservation of community landmarks, against a background of well-meaning but vague city policy and a nearly moribund Historic Preservation Commission.
The city’s website shows the commission, authorized for seven members, has two vacant seats. The terms of the remaining five members are all indicated as having expired in April of 2022.
The house at the center of the matter, at 292 S. Arlington Avenue, on the southwest corner of Arlington and Adelia Street, sold for a little under $2 million in March of this year to Elmhurst resident, R. J. Parrilli, who also owns the 50-foot wide vacant lot just south of the house.
Parrilli applied to the city for a map amendment and lot consolidation, intending to tear down the existing house and build a new single-family residence on the combined lots.
The prospect of tearing down the house and the likely loss of mature trees on the vacant lot spurred nearby neighbors, led by Jim Schuetz and Amy Wheeler, to start the Citizens for Elmhurst Preservation group. The group printed green Preserve Elmhurst signs and set up a Facebook page. They also started an online petition which has drawn some 1,400 signatures of people advocating for saving older homes like the 292 S. Arlington house.
Parrilli’s application took the case to the city’s Zoning and Planning Commission in May and alerted neighbors to the plan to replace the existing house with a new structure. Following two meetings, the eight commissioners present voted unanimously to approve both the map amendment and the consolidation, sending a report recommending approval to the Development, Planning and Zoning Committee of the City Council. Along with the report went a formal objection to the map amendment from several owners of adjacent properties.
DPZ Committee Chair Ald Marti Deuter and committee members Ald. Tina Park and vice chair Ald. Jennifer Veremis met twice, agreed with the recommendations of the Zoning and Planning Commission, and recommended full City Council approval of both the map amendment and lot consolidation. That recommendation was on the council agenda for July 1.
There Deuter asked that her committee’s report be considered for a separate vote rather than as part of the consent agenda. She spoke about the many residents who spoke at both the Zoning Commission and DPZ committee meetings urging denial of both the map amendment and the lot consolidation.
Deuter noted that the case met city requirements for approval and had received unanimous approval from Zoning Commission members and from her committee members.
Speaking during the July 1 council meeting, Deuter acknowledged that the case – and resident letters and comments – had raised important issues of city policy on historic preservation and “the role and composition of the Historic Preservation Commission.”
But, she said, “what’s before us tonight is a zoning case.”
She thanked residents for their participation in the process. Deuter said she and her committee members heard clearly, “Our community values historic structures, our community does not want to lose old trees.”
She encouraged concerned residents to continue calling for action by elected officials to strengthen city policies on historic preservation. “There is always room for improvement,” she concluded.
With one alderman absent and a “no” vote from Ald. Rex Irby, the DPZ report was accepted by the council with 12 aye votes.
At the City Council meeting on July 15, council members approved an ordinance and final map amendment, clearing the way for Parrilli’s plan to replace the existing house. The final vote was 10 ayes, a single “no” vote from Irby and 3 absences.
Parrilli has applied for a demolition permit for the house. It is expected that permit will be issued once all city conditions have been met.
In a brief conversation with Pioneer Press on Monday morning, July 15, Parrilli said “he respectfully declined to comment” on the case, except to express surprise at all the attention the matter drew. “It was very unexpected, to be honest,” Parrilli said. He told Pioneer he intends to build one house on the combined lots.
For his part, Schuetz acknowledged that the case that energized his group raised bigger issues than one house, however historic or valuable. “We’ve pivoted,” Schuetz said in a conversation with Pioneer Press on July 11. That pivot, Schuetz said, is a turn from trying to “save” the 292 Arlington house to reviving and strengthening city policy and especially the Historic Preservation Commission. “Very positive things are happening,” Schuetz said.
In an earlier conversation, Schuetz noted a number of historic structures in town, particularly along Kenilworth and Arlington avenues between the Metra tracks and St. Charles Road worthy of protection. Those include a Frank Lloyd Wright home just east of the Arlington house on Adelia and several others of architectural note, including by Walter Burley Griffin.
Following the July 1 council vote on the Arlington matter, Mayor Scott Levin encouraged concerned citizens to continue to voice their concerns.
Levin acknowledged the delicate nature of “balancing property rights with preservation,” noting that at present the city ordinance on historic structures requires voluntary action by property owners.
“Letters and comments have not fallen on deaf ears,” Levin said of what he termed a wake-up call. “People are protective of their property rights, (but) historic preservation is coming alive again in a lot of people’s minds.”
In a recent text to Pioneer Press, Ald. Michael Bram (Third Ward) said he submitted a referral for review of city policy on historic preservation for council committee consideration.
Trees on the vacant lot have been removed as of July 16. Calls to the city for updated information on the status of the demolition permit were not returned by press time.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
