With consideration of a city staff report and the verbal purchase offer by Carol Baxley, the Urbana City Council voted Monday to defer the issue of the landmark designation of the Halberstadt house, 104 N. Central Ave.

The staff’s inspection made several conclusions. As far as the conditions of the home itself, staff concluded that it is structurally sound and about $67,000 of repairs need to be done in the coming months, such as the installation of a new boiler, reroofing and painting of the exterior.

Relocation of the home was also taken into consideration, with costs calculated around $100,000. That figure does not include how much would then have to be spent on renovation, estimated by planning manager Robert Myers to be around $60,000.

In contrast, demolition came up in the analysis as costing about $12,000.

According to the latest appraisal in 2010, the value of the property is about $125,000.

For long term viability, Myers suggested that a single family residence might be more cost-effective than the original plan of three standard apartments.

During public commentary, Baxley expressed again, as she had at previous council meetings, in purchasing the home.

“I would like to reiterate that I’m still interested in the house, if the church would like to sell it,” Baxley said. “Nothing in the report has changed my mind about that.”

Baxley said a written offer has been drafted and that she has been in communication with the city.

The Canaan Baptist Church, the property owner, have agreed to allow discussion to continue until the end of January. City staff anticipates an update will be given Dec. 13.

Regional housing needs were also addressed at the meeting during a presentation given by project director Brian Higgins of research firm Vogt Santer Insights out of Columbus, Ohio.

Following an April Request for Consultants Proposal, staff created a study task force, which includes Champaign County, Champaign, Urbana, the Housing Authority of Champaign County and the Village of Rantoul. Several members of the task force were present Monday, including Kevin Jackson and Patty Smith.

Higgins presented the analysis conducted to date, which suggests that on a countywide basis, there are not enough homes for the very lowest income bracket but more than enough for moderate and high income brackets.

Further study and discussion will allow the task force, Vogt Santer Insights and the involved cities to come together to find a solution for meeting a need for affordable housing.

Under way now that could have a significant impact on analysis of these findings is the extrapolation of students from the calculations.

“An overwhelming majority are renters and fall within a lower income bracket or maybe a moderate income bracket,” Higgins said. “We think that there’s probably actually demand for lower income — less than $20,000 — housing (that will be seen) once we extrapolate the student population.”