Arlington Heights forms task force to study historic preservation rules

Arlington Heights has formed a historic preservation task force to recommend whether new rules should be implemented to protect old homes, buildings and neighborhoods in town.

The 10-member panel, appointed by Mayor Jim Tinaglia, will meet monthly starting in August to examine potential new regulations and resources, then report back to the village board.

It’s an outgrowth of a topic that came up frequently during the last municipal election, and ended up on the village board’s strategic priority list following a goal setting workshop last summer.

“There are a variety of options. Different communities do different things,” said Trustee Robin LaBedz, who is co-chairing the panel with Trustee Wendy Dunnington. “Some have very strict zoning and building requirements. Some just have plaques identifying historic properties. It’s a big range. The idea will be to bring it back to the village board to discuss what possibilities are best for the village of Arlington Heights.”

LaBedz and Tinaglia are among the residents who live in one of the earliest settled parts of the village just north of the downtown. The nonprofit Historic Arlington Neighborhood Association, which has served the community of 625 houses since 1980, was behind an initiative to downzone seven of the century-old homes closest to the downtown in 2023.

The effort to prevent future high-density residential redevelopment was the first downzoning in Arlington Heights in some 25 years. At the time, it was called a “de facto” historic preservation district by Tom Gaynor, the association’s board president.

Gaynor is among the members of the new task force, which includes a swath of people from a variety of backgrounds including homeowners, builders and members of other village commissions. Other panelists include: Kirsten Kingsley, chair of the design commission; Bruce Green, a plan commission member; David Jaffe, who was appointed earlier this month to the Arlington Economic Alliance; Arlington Heights Historical Museum Director Jeff Anderson; and homebuilder Kevin Davis.

The group is set to meet at village hall on the second Thursday of each month at 4:30 p.m. Meetings will be open to the public, and agendas will be posted to the village’s website.

Keith Moens, a regular attendee of village meetings, criticized the new committee as “illegitimate” under village code, and questioned the manner in which Tinaglia set it up.

Village Attorney Hart Passman said the committee is bona fide.

“What’s in our municipal code is but one way that (the village) board can set up subsidiary advisory commissions on topics that the board would like advice from,” Passman said. “I have zero concerns whatsoever with the legality of the task force itself or with the manner by which the task force members have been selected.”