Looking as though it could use a fresh coat of paint, a large, maize-colored home in the 600 block of Forest Avenue in Glen Ellyn was up for sale last month but lacked a buyer.
Some neighbors feared that if its price dipped much lower, the home would be snapped up by a builder, bulldozed and replaced by a large new house.
Such apprehension is not new in Glen Ellyn, where a small number of vacant, buildable parcels remain and where since 1989 52 houses have been demolished, most replaced by new homes.
In an effort to preserve the integrity and character of its neighborhoods, the Glen Ellyn Village Board now has taken the first steps to limit house sizes. Trustees agreed to cap the heights of single-family homes and to restrict the ratios of square-footage to lot size.
Likely to affect only the most ostentatious of new homes, the proposed regulations will not excessively hamper residents’ abilities to improve their properties, Village President John Demling said.
Under the proposed restrictions, the height of a single-family home could not exceed 30 feet, measured from an average grade level to the midpoint of a sloped roof, unless the average height of all homes on a block is greater than 30 feet. Then, the village’s height ceiling would be 35 feet.
If the board adopts the regulations next year, residents and builders still would be allowed to seek variations through current zoning channels.
