Some Kenilworth residents had hoped to register the entire town as a National Register of Historic Places district. That referendum, as well as two in Winnetka, were defeated in the November elections (see my previous posts: Kenilworth & Winnetka Consider Preservation and Kenilworth Rejects Preservation Referendum
In Kenilworth, residents rejected the proposal by a landslide of 950 to 553 and achieved this dramatic result with a grassroots appeal to residents worried about property rights, sliding home sale prices and the tax implications of historic homes.
You could hardly get through the grocery aisles without encountering someone passionate about the subject. For the preservations, Kenilworth is unique in its large stock of Prairie and Arts and Crafts homes designed by well-known turn-of-the-century architects such as George Maher and Daniel Burnham. The village was a planned community and built on a grid with gracious homes and large lots designed to resemble a bucolic English country village. These homes are worth saving, no? 
Not necessary so! said the cons who came out and voted the measure down. Although almost everybody agrees that these lovely old homes deserve to be restored, not everybody can or wants to do that. The biggest fear: property rights and property values. Kenilworth already has a restrictive 12-month waiting period for all tear-down requests and I can attest that that has hurt some homesellers with older homes that are not notable. For a listing I had on Leicester Road, one potential buyer/builder declined after hearing that the waiting period had been increased from 9 months to 12.
This devisive issue has torn the village apart and pitted neighbors against neighbors. Although this proposal was meant as a compromise ". . .which would call attention to local history without imposing restrictions. . .opponents saw it as a stepping stone to future control on private property." (Pioneer Press, Winnetka Talk -11/27)
And therein lies the dilemma: how to protect both the houses and the pocketbooks of the wary homeowners.
Comments(0)