The Wheaton City Council has given the go-ahead for Mayor Jim Carr to set up a five-member panel made up of area builders and real estate agents to study issues related to teardowns.
In November, Councilman Robert Mork proposed that the council impose a six-month moratorium on all home demolitions to give the council time to study whether it wanted to impose tougher standards for the sizes of houses that are built to replace existing homes. Mork’s proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by council members. However, council members now have decided to revisit Mork’s idea.
According to information from city staff members, there were 21 buildings demolished in 2000, 16 taken down in 1999 and 17 razed in 1998.
But city officials also noted that many of those demolitions were either for subdivisions, for local governmental use or for the expansion of schools and churches.
As a result, in 2000 there were 12 one-for-one home demolitions, or what most people think of when they consider the phrase “teardown.” There were seven one-for-one demolitions in 1999 and four in 1998.
“I was surprised at these numbers,” said Councilwoman Linda Davenport. “I had thought there would be more.”
Asst. City Manager Mike Dzugan said city staff members believe the city needs to modify its regulations regarding the appropriate floor-area ratios for new homes to maintain the character of certain neighborhoods.
“Our current regulations aren’t getting at what we’re trying to do,” he said. “For instance, we’re not counting those two-story family rooms or two-story foyers in our floor-area ratio as having the area of two levels.
“Those add to the bulk of new homes, and someone else could come in and make a second floor out of those, which then would count as part of the floor-area ratio.”
In light of the relatively small number of teardowns in recent years and the fact that Carr had made it clear he does not support a moratorium, the council did not raise the moratorium issue at its most recent session. But Mork said after the meeting that he does not consider the issue dead.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s still an issue to consider, but I’m not sure if it’s going to come up at our next meeting,” he said.
“I still was planning to propose that this panel would be appointed, and I still support the concept of a temporary suspension of teardowns. My whole objective was to get staff thinking about this, and I thought Dzugan’s comments were informative. We’re going to have to do something with the floor-area ratios.”
In June 1999 at a planning retreat, the City Council identified a goal of monitoring teardowns and examining floor-area ratios, but when the council revisited those objectives a year later, council members rated that goal as a low priority.Davenport suggested that her main concern is not with the demolitions, but with how they are replaced.
“There are two issues here: the demolitions and what goes up in their place,” she said.
“We want to control what goes up in their places, but we don’t want to get into a position of telling people what they can’t do with their existing homes.”
The panel will report back to the council in three months.
