Palatine mansion to be leveled for new townhouses
The Palatine village council approved a plan Monday night to level an unoccupied mansion in the middle of the Auburn Woods subdivision just south of the Palatine Hills Golf Course in order to build two new townhouse buildings in its place.
The mansion was built on a 20 acre plot of land in 1956 by Kurt Stier who lived there with his wife, children and their 21 ponies, according to the Palatine Historical Society website. The Historical Society refers to the land as the “Pal-O-Mine pony farm” and mentions the family went into business giving pony rides to children.
Ben Vyverburg, Palatine's director of planning and economic development, said in 1986 most of the land around the house was sold to developers who built the Auburn Woods subdivision. After selling the land where their ponies once roamed, the Stier family built a high fence around their home to create a secluded enclave in the middle of the subdivision.
James Calabrese, a Palatine man who lives just south of the old Stier home said he got a chance to visit when the Stiers still lived there.
“It had a magnificent old swimming pool and it looked like it was from the 1940s,” Calabrese said. “The hallway had this great winding stairway, it was beautiful.”
Palatine residents Edward and Lisa Fermanis bought the Stier property in September 2013 from the family after Kurt Stier and his wife passed.
The Fermanises plan to demolish the home, take down the fence, remove the pool, clear out the overgrown brush and build two 5-unit townhouse buildings. The buildings will be placed on opposite sides of a new road connecting the new small subdivision — called Auburn Ridge — with the existing Auburn Woods subdivision.
Eugene Flynn, an Auburn Woods resident and member of the local homeowners association, said the plan has been well received by the community.
“We worked closely with the Fermanises to come to an agreement between the two parties,” Flynn told the village council before they voted on the plan. “The Board members and vast majority of our homeowners are very pleased that the current large mansion will leave our neighborhood and that the 10 units will be built right there in the middle of the property ... We feel we have a win-win situation.”
Calabrese told the council that he has been involved with matters like this before as an attorney and said he seldom saw the quality of accommodation that the Fermanises provided to him and the other Auburn Woods residents.
The feedback from neighbors was so positive that councilman Kollin Kozlowski joked that the council should have the Fermanises write a playbook on developing for the next developers to come along.
The council voted for the plan unanimously.