NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — The town of Normal’s Historic Preservation Commission voted last week to demolish two buildings in Uptown, while another’s fate is still up in the air.
“There are three buildings. One is on East Beaufort Street and two of them are on North Street, which the town purchased back in 2006 with the intention of one day taking them down to make way for two significant buildings adjacent to the circle,” said Mercy Davison, director of planning and zoning for the town.
On July 1, the commission voted to demolish the two buildings on North Street, next to the Garlic Press, also known as Trail West. They also voted unanimously not to demolish the building on Beaufort Street next to Windy City Weiners, or Trail East.
The two buildings are the homes of artwork and iconic murals, but the commission didn’t consider those and only focused on the buildings themselves.
“The historic commission isn’t looking at the murals. So that wasn’t part of their analysis in their recent vote. The mural on the building on North Street. We contacted the artist who did that. She’s an artist who knew that it was a building that would be coming down at some point,” said Davison.
While it may seem the mural deemed “perfectly normal” on Trail East is safe, unfortunately, it still could see the wrecking ball.
“When the historic commission votes not to approve a demolition permit, that just starts a 30-day clock ticking, and the town council, by code, has 30 days to take action to not allow demolition by declaring by starting the process to designate the building as historic,” said Davison.
That 30-day timer will be up by the end of the month, and Davison said its unlikely the town will take any action.
“If the town council does not take any action to designate the property as historic, then demolition can go forward,” she said. “That’s what is anticipated to happen because the council has a different cast of characters from 2006.”
“The intent when that building was purchased was to tear it down. For this proposed development to go forward, the building has to be demolished.”
The proposed developments in question would be two retail and residential spaces to provide for housing and business in Uptown. The town has already been working with developers to render mock-ups of what these buildings would look like.
“The prospective developer we’re working with now on a development agreement, that person came to town a few weeks back and talked through the concept for the two sites. If this all moves forward, it would be, you know, one building on each side of Constitution Boulevard, and they would basically be adjacent to the circle,” she said.
But in order for those buildings to go up, the three buildings would need to come down. Two of them are already going to be torn down, but the other is still up in the air.
The Normal Town Council meets again on July 20, and there are no plans as of now to take any action to deem the building a historical site.
WMBD TV first reported this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
