Geneva asked to reconsider vote on Pure Oil demolition

The Geneva City Council is being asked to reconsider its decision upholding denial of demolition for the former Pure Oil service station.

The council will consider the request at its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 22 S. First St.

One of the seven aldermen who voted against overturning the denial would have to move for reconsideration. Any other alderman could second the motion.

In February, the Historic Preservation Commission denied a request to demolish the building. The HPC got to rule on it because the building, at 502 W. State St., is in the city’s historic district.

The owner, Joe Stanton, appealed that decision to the city council, which upheld the decision March 26.

Stanton would like to tear down the building to make way for parking and a drive-up lane for a bank that proposes to move in to the first floor of another building he owns immediately to the west.

The Historic Preservation Commission ruled, however, that he had not met federal standards showing that the building could not reasonably be adapted to another use besides its original, historic use.

The building houses a gardening store.

The Pure Oil service station opened in 1937. It eventually became a Union 76 station. Stanton bought the building in 2006, as a way of protecting the view from the windows of the building at 514 W. State. He testified that he looked for a way to use the station’s service bays for the proposed bank drive-up.