Oak Park expanded its Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District boundaries Tuesday, adding 444 homes to the area once declared one of America’s 10 great neighborhoods.
The expansion brings the total number of homes in the district to 1,934, Oak Park Urban Planner Doug Kaarre said. Of those, 1,728 homes – or 89 percent – are considered historically relevant to the area. (Photos: Oak Park’s Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District)
Discussions about updating the district’s boundaries began in 2005, Kaarre said, largely because the district’s boundaries drawn in the early 1970s were not documented in line with current historic district standards. The boundaries were extended mostly northwest by the village board’s Tuesday vote.
Kaarre said the Historic Preservation Commission’s goal is to maintain the character of the neighborhood over the long term, but some residents are worried it will restrict their rights to adapt their homes could end up coming with a hefty price tag.
Homes in the historic district are subject to a historical advisory review by the preservation commission prior to receiving a building permit.
Bill Dawson, a resident of Forest Avenue and newly added resident of the Frank Lloyd Wright district, said affordability and functionality of the preservation plan should be discussed further by the board.
“Someone could propose a tasteful addition to the back of the building, but still have to go through a rigorous review process,” Dawson said. “It’s hard for people on the affordability side to have an architect draw up plans that cost a lot of money to have them knocked down and told they can’t do it that way.”
Trustee Collette Lueck said the village should take a look at what she dubbed a tripod of crucial issues associated with the preservation process: maintaining history, functionality and cost. If standards are too strict and residents can’t afford to maintain their home, they’ll do nothing, she said.
“There is sometimes a conflict between what’s historic and what’s functional,” Lueck said.
Historic Preservation Commission Chairwoman Christina Morris agreed with Lueck and said the commission tries to work out the best solution for both the district and the property owner.
The work to update the inventory of historic homes in the Frank Lloyd Wright District with the National Register was completed in 2009, but this still involved approval from the village, he said. In 2011, Oak Park held public meetings in March, June and July, followed by a public hearing in October. There were also direct mailings to the 444 homes that were added into the district, Kaarre said.
The American Planning Association declared the Frank Lloyd Wright District one of America’s 10 great neighborhoods in 2010, recognizing it as the “world’s single-greatest concentration of residences designed by architects representing the Prairie School style.”
bdoyle@tribune.com
