Last year, the Village of Hinsdale marked its sesquicentennial birthday, bringing additional attention to an already historically conscious Chicago suburb looking to preserve a facade of its past.
Tuesday night the Hinsdale Village Board approved an ordinance amending titles 2, 9, and 14 of the Hinsdale Village Code, concerning Boards and Commissions, Building Regulations, and Historic Preservation respectively.
The rules primarily, but not exclusively, concern homes located within the Robbins Park Historical District, roughly 120 acres of land southeast of downtown Hinsdale consisting of more than 360 residential buildings.
Chief among changes is the creation of a “design review” meeting with an Ad Hoc Historic District Design Review Team for applicants seeking to demolish or relocate their building if it resides in Robbins Park or is listed as a landmarked property.
Between 2001 and 2006, 20 buildings were registered as landmarked properties, including the Katherine Legge Memorial Lodge and Burns Field Warming Shelter.
A new review team will be created for each application and include a member of the village’s Board of Trustees; teams are intended to provide “design feedback, education, guidance and advice to property owners,” according to the ordinance.
“I’m not sure that the point of this is to be an exhaustive study, the real point is to just let the homeowner know that this is an architecturally significant home and here are the high points as to why,” Hinsdale Village Board President Thomas Cauley said Tuesday.
Appointment of a review team must be completed within 15 days of filing an application, teams have 15 days to provide recommendations, and the mandatory design review process must be completed within 60 days. Cauley said this time frame is arbitrary and subject to change over time.
“This is meant to make a homeowner, who maybe is from outside the community, aware of the significance of the home,” Village Board Member Matthew Posthuma said. “The goal is to give them an overall picture, not to give them every single detail.”
