Elgin couple seeks OK to make old nursing home their home
An Elgin couple is seeking rezoning approval from the city so they can convert a 135-year- old mansion built byDavidC. Cookinto a home for their extended family after decades of use as a nursing home.
Sam and Ramona Jones purchased the 16,000square-foot building at 105115 N. Gifford St. two years ago, and this week won the Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation that it be rezoned as a Residence Conservation District.
The couple would like to renovate the structure so it can be a home they eventually share with their six children and their children’s families.
It would be a singlefamily home in which there would be an “extended family living in one household,” said Damir Latinovic, senior planner for the city of Elgin.
Cook, the wealthy owner of a publishing company, built the house in 1885 for his family and it remained in the family until 1945. When it was sold, it was rezoned for a community facility and occupied by the Bowes Nursing Home until 2010, Latinovic said.
Right now, the Joneses
live in the building’s north addition with three of their six sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. Their goal is to make it a home the entire family can share when the renovation work is completed, they said.
“We’re excited about restoring the building to residential,” Sam Jones said. “It’s a challenge, but I think we can succeed and make a great impact on the neighborhood.”
Someexteriorwork, such as removal of window boards and the chain-link fence around the property, has been done, but additional facade changes or improvements would require a certificate of appropriateness from the city because the house is in the Elgin Historic District, Latinovic said.
Interior restorationwork would be done over several years, he said.
The couple is seeking approval of a conditional use from the city so that they can exceed the maximum permitted building coverage and residential floor area allowed under city code, Latinovic said.
Additionally, because the property has on-site parking spaces, the familywould like a variance freeing them from the requirement that they must build a garage, he said. There is sufficient parking for the number of people who would be living there, he said.
“The proposal represents a perfect adaptive reuse of the property back to a single-family home for which the original building was constructed in 1885,” Latinovic said.
“Over the years, a lot of properties have been converted from single-family into multifamily units. This is essentially adeconversion from a nursing home into a large single-family home that, if restored properly, can be a significant positive for this immediate area,” he said.
“I just have so many questions,” Jerold Deering said. “I cannot get past potentially seven families living in a single-family residence. I’m surprised that no one has come out from the neighborhood to comment for this or against this.
“There just seems to be open details about this that makeme concerned. I think it’s well-intentioned. I have nothing but the highest respectandpersonal regardto the staff and their recommendation and the application, for that matter.”
Commissioner Karin Jones said shewas happy to see someone investing in the property.
“It’s a huge undertaking. Theproperty has sat vacant for well over 10 years and fell into disrepair,” Jones said. “It’s a bonus that it’s an old D.C. Cook property. … I look forward to seeing it. I hope the project goes well.”
Despite his reservations, Deering voted in favor of recommending the Elgin City Council approval the necessary zoning change and variances. The only no vote was cast by Commissioner Loretta Revesz.