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Naperville set to decide historic mansion's fate

Naperville City Council members are preparing to determine the fate of a well-known house in the historic district while also affecting a nonprofit's ability to sell the property and relocate.

The decision before the council focuses on the mansion on Wright Street that once was occupied by furniture industrialist Peter Kroehler and now is used as a high school for students with social or emotional disturbances.

The historic preservation commission on Oct. 24 denied a request by property owner Little Friends to demolish the mansion, but gave the disability services agency permission to raze the other structures on the site - referred to in city documents as the administration building, gymnasium and Krejci Academy.

An appeal of the commission's move to block the mansion demolition is set to come before the council at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the municipal center, 400 S. Eagle St.

Little Friends leaders say the council's decision should hinge on a question of money.

The commission decided the mansion's historical significance as the short-term home of the factory owner and two-time Naperville mayor outweighed the estimated $395,000 it would cost to bring the building up to code for an occupancy permit.

But Little Friends President and CEO Mike Briggs said there's a big difference between the cost to meet code and the cost to make the mansion, built in 1907 and 1908, livable or marketable again.

Estimates in a report by architect Wight & Company show it could cost $4.3 million to move the mansion to a corner of the site and fix it up or $5.2 million to renovate it in place, including such components as the cost of land, utilities, site work, asbestos removal, demolition of the other buildings and repairs.

Briggs said the cost to make the mansion marketable needs to be considered because Little Friends wants to sell its nearly 4-acre property for the highest price to facilitate a move to a site more suited for educating students with disabilities. The agency is looking at a building in Warrenville that would cost an estimated $7 million to buy and renovate.

Little Friends received eight offers for its property before the commission said the mansion must stay. All but one were contingent on the site being empty.

According to a city memo, the offer that would have accepted the mansion was for $4 million. But an appraiser hired by Little Friends valued the property at $5.5 million.

"It's not something we can afford to do, given what we're trying to do with moving to a facility that's better for our future," Briggs said.

Aside from the central cost question, council members also are hearing about fairness, history and design.

Some residents, such as Julie Garrison, are voicing concerns about past decisions to overturn demolition denials and saying historic district regulations need to be applied fairly to homeowners as well as nonprofit organizations.

Historian Bryan Ogg said allowing Little Friends to fully level the Wright Street site would be an act of "cultural vandalism" and he called on the council to protect the mansion, and by extension, the historic district itself.

Members of the new nonprofit Naperville Preservation Inc. are promoting a design by architect Tom Ryan, which illustrates one way the site could be reused, with the mansion divided into a duplex and the rest of the property made into lots for new houses designed to look old. Ryan said he drew the idea to code to match residential zoning.

But none of this comes without rebuttal.

Little Friends spokesman Patrick Skarr said Ryan's idea is "disconnected from the reality" of the site and called it "disingenuous."

"We can't sell our building with a sketch," he said. "We need an offer."

Once the city council upholds or overturns the decision about the mansion, the action is final unless appealed in court.

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