When it comes to doing any exterior renovation to your home in Riverside, it’s not like Anytown, U.S.A., where you head over to the Building Department, hand over your plans and receive your building permit. No, it’s much more difficult.
One of the tests you must pass, particularly if you own a home that is a local landmark-and there are dozens of those in the village-is an appearance before the village’s Preservation Commission. The Preservation Commission must issue a certificate of appropriateness before exterior work can proceed. The reason is to avoid compromising the architectural integrity of the home.
That process was on full display last year, when the Cook County Public Guardian applied for a roofing permit for the home of a disabled homeowner. The home happened to be part of the nationally landmarked Coonley Estate, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the commission bent over backwards-properly, in our estimation-to assure that the structure was restored in a historically accurate way. Indeed, the commission was instrumental in finding a new owner for the property, which is now being meticulously restored.
We wish that the commission would more carefully scrutinize plans presented by public bodies that come before it, looking for certificates of appropriateness for improvements to landmark structures.
Last week, the commission heard from two public bodies, the Riverside Public Library and Riverside Township, which owns the township hall. With respect to the library, commissioners backpedaled in reaffirming approval of a concrete pad and benches for a reading circle.
Actually, their action last week was appropriate for what it was-an admission that the commission had indeed given its OK for the reading circle back in August. An attempt in September to rethink the plan was rightly abandoned as an inappropriate action.
However, the commission could have done more at its August meeting to make sure all avenues had been exhausted to make the reading circle fit in with the library grounds. The concrete pad is a bit jarring and the prospect of concrete benches is, well, a bit troublesome.
The village’s Landscape Advisory Commission had suggested a gravel pad and preservation commissioners had suggested investigating limestone benches, but neither group required the library to follow up on those suggestions. The reading circle is certainly a welcome addition to the grounds, but may have been even better, had the commission held it to the same standard it has for homeowners.
As for the replacement doors for the Riverside Township Hall, we feel the commission and township have lost a fine opportunity to restore the entrance to the building in an authentic way. Yes, the cost would have been higher, but cost has not necessarily stopped commissioners from mandating more expensive solutions in the past.
In addition, it was the township that made the mistake of having doors fabricated before finding that the change would need approval by the Preservation Commission.
Will the decisions made last week really affect Riverside’s historic character? No. But in the future, the Preservation Commission shouldn’t so easily grant to public bodies what it doesn’t for private ones.
