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Old Town Homeowner Earns Right To Raise Building As Neighbors Fume

By Ted Cox | July 7, 2017 1:47pm | Updated on July 10, 2017 8:06am
 Owner William Barry wants to raise the house on the left off the ground.
Owner William Barry wants to raise the house on the left off the ground.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

CITY HALL — The fifth time was the charm for an Old Town Triangle homeowner seeking to raise his house above ground level, who won the right to do so this week even as neighbors called it unfair.

On his fifth appeal to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, William Barry on Thursday won a unanimous decision from the Permit Review Committee allowing him to raise his house 2½ feet above the ground, even though the standard set and followed within the Old Town Triangle Historic District for decades had been to limit such elevations to a foot.

Commissioner James Houlihan, who led the effort at what he called a "compromise," said it was "a longstanding and difficult issue for all of us."

 Old Town homeowner William Barry (right) and his architectural consultant George Kisiel argued that Barry's house needs to be elevated more than the standard one foot above ground level.
Old Town homeowner William Barry (right) and his architectural consultant George Kisiel argued that Barry's house needs to be elevated more than the standard one foot above ground level.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

Barry testified that he had lived in the Old Town Triangle for 19 years in adjoining buildings and said the foundation is rotting under 227 W. Menomonee St. He sought to lift that house three feet above ground level and replace the foundation with not a basement but a crawl space.

Department of Planning and Development staff had said that would have an "adverse effect" on the Old Town Triangle Historic District and sought to limit the elevation to a foot, the standard followed for a quarter century. Barry had previously tried to apply to raise the building more than that in 2002, 2013 and twice in 2015 and had been rebuffed by the commission each time.

Many Old Town Triangle buildings were constructed at ground level in the 1800s, and it's considered a distinguishing characteristic of the historic district designated as a city landmark in 1977. Barry's architectural consultant George Kisiel testified that only a handful of houses remain at ground level in the area.

Department staffer David Trayte testified that raising the building three feet would alter the proportion of the house to the street and cited national guidelines as well for limiting such house-raisings.

Several local residents agreed, led by Diane Gonzalez of the Old Town Triangle Association. "Everyone else holds to the one-foot increase," she said. Gonzalez warned of setting a new precedent in the district after other residents had followed the established guidelines for years, adding, "It's not fair."

Barry's next-door neighbor Allen Carley sympathized, but also defended the existing standards. "We all want him to fix these two buildings up," he said. "But I want him to stay within the guidelines. One foot is plenty."

John Craib-Cox urged commissioners to "keep the delicate balance of rooflines in place."

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, backed the four earlier rejections of the proposal and urged commissioners to hold to a one-foot elevation, saying, "We do feel this is an important decision."

But Barry argued otherwise, calling the one-foot limitation "a deal-breaker."

Houlihan agreed, proposing a 2½-foot elevation as a "compromise" to break a "stalemate." He called renovation of the house "a benefit to the entire area" and said, "The benefits outweigh and really make reasonable the deviation" from the norm.

Houlihan made a motion to approve the 2½-foot elevation, and at first Commissioner Gabriel Ignacio Dziekiewicz declined to second it. But when Commissioner Ernest Wong, acting as committee chairman, seconded the motion, all three voted in favor with no one opposed.

Gonzalez was livid after the vote.

"There was no reason" for the extra elevation, she said. "It's a shame that we're not respected at all.

"We lose all the time," she added of the association's efforts to maintain the historic district. "But this was a tough one."