TERRE HAUTE —
The Terre Haute City Council looks set to be the stage next month of a renewed effort to preserve historic buildings downtown.
Councilman Todd Nation, D-4th, will be bringing an ordinance to the council in May that would establish an Historic Preservation Commission in the city. A similar effort to create such a commission, also championed by Nation, failed to come to a vote in 2009 after several weeks of council discussion.
The decision to re-introduce the idea was prompted when Indiana State University officials confirmed this month they were considering locating student housing on the north side of the 500-block of Wabash Avenue, an area on the National Register of Historic Places, Nation said after Thursday evening’s regular council meeting.
ISU has long-range plans to create housing for up to 600 students in downtown Terre Haute.
Nation’s ordinance, available online on the city’s website at www.terrehaute. in.gov, would empower the mayor, with council approval, to name a five-person historic preservation commission. The commission would have authority within historic districts – specifically recognized as such by the City Council – concerning alterations or demolition of historic structures.
Several steps would be required before an area would become a locally-designated historic district, Nation said.
“This is a step I believe we’ve needed to take for years,” he said.
Given the timetable ISU seems to be working on, Nation said he believes it’s unlikely this ordinance, even if passed in May, would affect any plans for the 500 block of Wabash Avenue.
• Also Thursday, a rezoning request that would have allowed for the construction of a 80-to-100 unit self-storage facility on South 25th Street was withdrawn by the petitioner. The proposed storage facility would have been near the corner of South 25th Street and Dimmick Avenue. Several residents of Dimmick Avenue attended recent Area Plan Commission meetings and City Council meetings to express their opposition to the project.
Aaron Hankins, who was hoping to construct the facility with his wife, Rene, did not wish to comment when contacted after the meeting on reasons for withdrawing the rezoning request.
• The Council approved another rezoning request at Thursday’s meeting. The rezoning will allow for the expansion of “The Bouncin’ Barn,” an indoor inflatable playground business owned by Howie and Stacey Johnson. The business plans to expand its building and add more parking, said Rhonda Oldham, an attorney representing the Bouncin’ Barn.
“It’s been a very successful business this year,” Oldham told the nine-person council. The Bouncin’ Barn opened for business in September of last year.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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City Council looking into historic commission
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