Today's News-Gazette:
When the city's historic preservation commission and then the city council voted last summer to deny developer Howard Wakeland the right to tear down an old rooming house he owned in a historic district on West Main Street, he took the dispute to court.
On Monday night, rather than continue to litigate, the city council voted unanimously to authorize Mayor Laurel Prussing to sign a settlement agreement with Wakeland. It will let him tear down the century-old house at 809 W. Main St. in return for a few concessions about the design and materials used in a new house Wakeland is planning for the same location.
Wakeland didn't attend the meeting, and he wasn't gloating when reached at home by telephone.
"I'm going to keep my mouth shut," he said.
Discuss.
This is horrible news. They settle out of court and the inappropriate dealings of the Historic Preservation Council can just continue.
Hopefully, we'll be hearing from Julian Gorski's attorneys in the near future. Hopefully, he will not settle.
The next couple of months might be interesting, even with this setback.
Gorski doesn't have Wakeland's financial resources. I think he'll take the offer from Urbana Development Group, which was comparable to what JSM offered, and run.
A settlement isn't all bad with Wakeland, either. I think the city might show more restraint on preservation decisions from now on, given that they had to backtrack so much.
Did the UDC already close on the house?