A few weeks ago a draft of the Historic Preservation Ordinance came before the village council for discussion. During this time, questions were asked about the ordinance in regards to where a Historic District would be. Unfortunately, I miss-quoted myself after putting in a 64-hour week at my “Day Job.”
The question asked was “where in the village would a historic district be?” I said “right now Marengo near Jackson”. What I intended to say is ” this would be one of the areas.”
The housing stock in this area did not change drastically from the time of construction. I also wanted to make it clear that the other area that would benefit most from the Historic Preservation Certified Local Government Status would be the Bungalows and Housing South of the Eisenhower Expressway. Reason being, they to have not changed drastically over the course of time.
Another question asked was “Say I wanted to build a dormer onto my home or other work I do not want to be told I can’t because of a historic preservation ordinance.” There is no such law that says you cannot. The Standards For Historic Preservation and Restoration does state if an addition to a home is applied to the structure, the new addition must be in the same architectural design as the existing structure. What this means is, if you had a stucco house and built a dormer addition to the home it should be built with the same type of materials used on the original structure.
Meaning do not build a dormer and slap aluminum siding onto it, but use stucco to compliment and blend to the existing structure.
Hope this clears things up.
Rich Vitton
Historic Preservation Committee
