Politics & Government
Video Update: No South Geneva Historic District—For Now
Geneva's Committee of the Whole votes unanimously to recommend ceasing city efforts to study the area along South Batavia Avenue as a potential historic district.
The South Geneva Historic District proposal is history—at least for now.
The City Council's Committee of the Whole voted 7-0 Monday night to stop studying the South Geneva Study Area—and in fact remove any mention of it in the city's 2017 Strategic Plan. The COW is a recommending body, and the full City Council will make a final determination on the matter on June 6.
But given the comments of the council members and the overwhelming disapproval from residents of the proposed historic district, it's hard to see any other ending to this chapter of the story.
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"Can we force this on an unwilling neighborhood? I think not," said Fifth Ward Alderman Craig Maladra, who along with Ralph Dantino represents the neighborhoods that would be affected. "This is clearly not the time or the place."
Maladra's comments echoed those of the neighbors, about 5o of whom came to City Hall to be heard on the matter.
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Patrick McCann, 729 Hawthorne Lane, said he took his own sampling of residents' opinion and found 63 property owners who were opposed to the plan.
"I would ask the motion be tabled, canceled, killed," he said.
South Batavia Avenue resident Mary Goodfellow said the economic times make the limitations of a historic district a particularly hard pill to swallow.
"Now is not the right time," she said. "It’s going to put hard times on a lot of people trying to sell their home."
Jeff James, an 11-year resident, was the most blunt.
“Please remove a level of beurocracy and stay out of my business,” he said.
asked city officials to seek a supermajority vote of property owners as a requisite for any future historic district.
Earlier in the evening, the COW recommended purchase of a tandem-axle dump truck in the amount of $114,967, and Smircich used the agenda item as an example to drive home his point.
He said requiring a supermajority vote would "leave the door wide open—but not so wide open that you can drive that new dump truck through."
Read More
- From Susan Sarkauskas of the Daily Herald: Geneva won't pursue new historic district
- From Frank Vaisvilas of The Geneva Republican: Geneva to nix historic preservation plan
