Within walking distance of downtown Wheaton is one of the city’s oldest and most desirable neighborhoods. The towering shade trees, rich mix of architectural house styles and flourishing parks are some of the characteristics that inspired resident Julie Burdick to buy her 1906 Queen Anne-style house three years ago.
The demand for those qualities also has given developers reason to focus on the north side neighborhood. The evidence: a steady stream of teardown requests at City Hall.
Wheaton has 37 teardowns to date this year; last year there were 55. Some of the teardowns are being replaced with businesses or offices, not houses; the city does not break out the statistics.
A teardown typically involves demolishing an older, sometimes tired-looking house and replacing it with a larger one.
Just like some people in other older towns, residents in Burdick’s neighborhood and elsewhere in Wheaton are alarmed about the teardown trend and about some of the new construction.
Since May, five houses in Burdick’s neighborhood have been purchased to tear down.
“There are a number of demolitions that have occurred that needed to be done. Good ones have gone up in their place and some bad ones too,” she said.
Looking for balance
Not far from Franklin Middle School, Burdick describes one house under construction as the most “awful thing you have ever seen.”
The house takes up the entire lot and the design is not compatible with the neighborhood’s older houses, she said. The block on which it sits also has four other teardowns and new houses, which have drastically changed the character of the street.
“Once one of these things starts, the whole block erodes,” Burdick said.
However, she also pointed to new construction that pleases the neighborhood.
One of her neighbors, who tore down an old bungalow, wanted to build a new Victorian-style house that looked like it had been there for 100 years.
“He did everything tastefully and well. He carried the plans around to the neighbors,” Burdick said.
It is this balance that Burdick, a founding member of the recently formed group Neighborhood Character Counts, hopes she and 50 other members can achieve by working with city officials.
Jim Kozik, director of the city’s planning and economic development, said one proposed alternative to control teardowns was turning the neighborhood into a historic district because many houses are eligible for landmark status. In 2002 residents rejected that idea because they feared it would be too restrictive.
Creating overlay district
Instead, the city and residents will hammer out possible rules for teardowns and new construction in a newly proposed Northside Residential Overlay District. The district would be bordered by downtown and Prairie, Ellis and Irving Avenues.
In the proposed plan, the city would encourage new construction, additions or other alterations to existing houses that reflect distinct physical characteristics compatible with the bulk and scale of houses in the neighborhood.
Defining characteristics of the area include raised basements, front porches, prominent front entrances, detached garages placed at the rear of the lots, wide roof eaves, dwellings-oriented center-front on lots, deep front yards and wide side yards.
To help achieve these characteristics, builders would be offered incentives such as bonus space for detached garages at the rear of the houses, attached garages that are rear- or side-loaded and unenclosed front porches. Houses with raised basements would receive height bonuses.
The plan also calls for mandatory meetings between developers and neighbors.
“A demolition meeting is a first step,” Burdick said, to address such issues as tree preservation, flooding and asbestos removal.
Considering size and bulk
A provision that called for reducing the city’s requirements for floor-area ratio, a calculation regulating the maximum square footage of a house, was dropped from the plan.
The current requirement allows for a structure to take up 40 percent of the total lot size. The city had considered reducing that to 30 percent but rejected the idea because most council members believe it could negatively impact current property owners’ rights.
Burdick and her group were disappointed but plan to continue looking for ways to control the size and bulk of new construction.
She has suggested the city grandfather all the houses in her neighborhood at the current floor-area ratio. Anything purchased after that could be subject to reduced floor-area ratios. That idea has yet to be discussed at the council level.
The city also is establishing an ad-hoc committee to monitor the overlay district. A public hearing on the proposed district was held Aug. 9 and the council will continue discussing the issue next month.
Even with the proposed plan on the table, Kozik sees the market adjusting.
“The quality of housing is getting better. The level of design detail is improving,” he said. “We are seeing builders doing the detached garages. They are taking more care at looking at the neighborhood. This is a really hard issue to deal with.”
He said the City Council also is trying to build a consensus between residents, property owners and developers.
Look at whole town
Other Wheaton residents living outside the proposed overlay district share Burdick’s concerns about teardowns but are frustrated as to why the city won’t give their neighborhoods the same consideration.
Ted Lowe lives in a far north subdivision, where most of the houses were built in the 1950s. He has lived in his house on Paddock Court for 18 years and doesn’t plan to move.
On his block of about 20 houses, three are being or planned to be torn down.
“Progress is progress. It goes on. It is hard to stop a big wheel in motion,” Lowe said.
He believes the overlay proposal is a good idea but doesn’t want the city to distinguish neighborhoods.
“Good character should be pretty much everywhere,” he said.
At this point, Councilwoman Linda Johnson said she hasn’t heard from people in other neighborhoods asking for equal treatment.
Fears of increasing property taxes also have come to the attention of some council members.
Councilman Tom Mouhelis, who works for the Milton Township assessor’s office, tries to quell the residents’ concerns of what he calls the “starter castles.”
Last year, new taxing neighborhoods were created to pull out the new houses so they didn’t affect the sales ratios used by the township’s assessor’s office. The sales ratios, which are determined every four years by the county, are used to adjust the assessment value of houses in the neighborhood. New houses still have the same tax rate and tax calculation as other houses, according to Neighborhood Character Counts.
New construction considered separately won’t impact property taxes of established houses and generates more property-tax revenues for the city.
Communication is key
For some, more regulations are not the answer to the teardown issue.
Tom Cowan, a builder and spokesman for the Naperville-based group Community First, believes solving the teardown issue begins by bringing together all the stakeholders polarized by the contentious subject.
“I decided the city needs help from citizens in planning their town. The right thing to do was to stop arguing,” Cowan said.
Community First is a 25-member volunteer group of building professionals, homeowners and residents who have developed design guidelines for new construction and remodeling projects in established neighborhoods. The recommendations, illustrated in a design workbook, aim to encourage builders to consider the architectural features of existing houses when approaching a teardown project.
Cowan contends that regulating the size of the house doesn’t necessarily guarantee a structure will fit in with the neighborhood.
The point is driven home when he asks people to look at pictures of new construction and to say which ones they like best. Again and again, he said, they choose a house that was built bigger than regulation.
In Naperville, the city gives developers a copy of the workbook when they apply for a demolition permit. Builders are only encouraged, not mandated, to use the book.
Wheaton officials liked the idea and are creating a guidebook and customizing it for the overlay district.
Other projects
– West Chicago-based Airhart Construction is entering into a contract to purchase the National Louis University site located in the DuPage County Courthouse downtown. The $100 million proposal calls for demolishing the old jail while preserving the courthouse’s historic character. The developer and Chicago-based Focus Development plan to build 264 lofts, condominiums, rowhouses and a clubhouse.
– A three-story, 52,000-square-foot addition to the Wheaton Public Library is expected to get under way this fall. The $20 million project will include linking the library with Adams Park by closing Cross Street and landscaping. The one-story part of the library on the north, which has no basement, is to be demolished. In its place, an addition will be built with a larger lower-level children’s department, a main floor and two additional floors.
– Plans are moving ahead to build about 200 condominium units on the former Bank One property bounded by Front, Scott, Cross and Wesley Streets. Chicago-based Norwood Builders’ plan also includes retail space. The proposal is pending City Council approval; if it is approved, construction could start this fall.
– A new retail development by GTC Investment in the city’s tax-increment financing district–at a former gas station at West and Front Streets–recently was approved. The plans call for a building that will house up to four tenants, including a coffee shop.
