The River Forest village board approved a compromise historic preservation ordinance Monday, ending a years-long debate between the need for preserving historic architecture versus the need for preserving the rights of property owners.
“What we’ve done in the past three or four years was basically talk about it,” said Trustee Patrick O’Brien, who said the real credit for the ordinance goes to Laurel McMahon and others who “gave selflessly of their time” to develop the ordinance. “I think as a community we should all thank her.”
The ordinance allows owners to nominate their properties as landmarks and creates a Historic Preservation Commission, but is otherwise designed to protect property rights.
“No property shall be subject to any restriction or regulation … unless it has been submitted to the Commission for approval by an owner and approved as a Landmark,” the new law reads in part. “Upon designation as such by the Commission, the subject property shall remain a Landmark unless withdrawn … .”
The board voted 6-0 to approve the ordinance.
In voting for the new law, Trustee Stephen Hoke said he had some reservations that it did not go far enough to protect significant properties in River Forest.
“We have something really special here,” Hoke said. “I’m not sure we really tackled the hard things here. We deferred it.”
McMahon agreed. Although she congratulated the board for approving the ordinance unanimously, she called it a “pretty innocuous ordinance.”
The law is entirely voluntary or advisory, “so the potential for it to have much of an impact on River Forest is pretty small,” McMahon said.
“It’s a step in the right direction … . A true preservation ordinance would have addressed all development concerns in the entire village” to protect the character of the community,” she said.
Creation of the new commission-and how it will be composed-will be key, McMahon said.
“This commission needs to be an advocate for preservation in the village,” she said, adding that she understands a number of well-qualified volunteers have already asked to be considered. Those selected for the commission ought to themselves be preservation advocates, not generalists, she said.
McMahon said a major incentive of an ordinance-that a homeowner’s neighbors would be compelled to make sensitive improvements to their homes-was removed.
She hopes, though, that the commission, and a village-wide survey of historical properties that the commission will undertake once formed, will increase public awareness of and sensitivity to historic preservation.
CONTACT: dcarter@wjinc.com