After its designation as a historic landmark, the Joliet Limestone house on the corner of Michigan and Busey avenues will continue to be a residential property, its owners say.

The Twin City Bible Church is backing off its original plans to turn the Reed-Sutton House, located at 1207 S. Busey Ave., into offices after the Urbana City Council unanimously voted to declare it a historic landmark last Monday. The house near campus has been a point of discussion among community members after a University student filed an application in early April for the Historic Preservation Commission to review.

Now, any major changes to the exterior of the house require the commission’s blessings; the owner is free to make changes inside.

This decision was made after the commission unanimously voted in a public hearing earlier this month to dub it historic. The Twin City Bible Church opposed these efforts, and because of that, the issue was left to the city council to decide. The church can now take the city to court, but it will not do that, said Bryan Bloom, a trustee for the Christian organization.

As for the block, the plan now is to have the home directly west of the Reed-Sutton House renovated and turned into rented housing, Bloom said, adding that he needs to get the plan through his board. That home was scheduled to be demolished late last year to make way for a parking lot, but the church withdrew its permit after hearing testimony from concerned neighbors.

Bloom said the lot would’ve been used to expand parking for the handicap and elderly contingent, and the property would have provided room for a gazebo. Currently, much of the parking for Sunday service is behind McKinley Health Center.

Any plans for owning the entire block, Bloom said, are “impractical at this point because the 801 Indiana (house, which is directly north of the Reed-Sutton house) was designated a historic landmark in January.

“So any thought of that happening is over. If someone was trying to block us from getting the entire block, well, that did it. There’s no reason to designate the stone house a historic landmark to necessarily block us.”

This move comes as a relief to some residents in the west Urbana neighborhood, which is relatively quiet and comprises cottage-style single-family homes.

Louise Kuhny lives at 801 W. Indiana Ave. and says she and her family moved to the block last year because of the look and feel of the neighborhood. She says having the Twin City Bible Church go through with its original plan, turning the house into office space and the backyard into a small parking lot, would affect the quality of living.

Kuhny says she wants to invest in the house in the long term.

“But it would be very difficult for us to continue to live here if there were basically commercial property right next to us,” she said.

However, the church opposed the notion that the house, which it acquired through a gift in 2009, was historic. This is partly because designating a property as a historic landmark, according to appraisers, can affect the value of a home, Bloom said.

“I felt like a defendant, defending the status of our property,” he said of the hearing. “If a non-owner can come in and change the identity of your property without your permission, that’s a problem, I think.”

According to the application and supporting material, University student Elisa Laurini argued that the limestone facades and the two original owners of whom the house is named after should qualify the 73-year-old property as historic. Both families have had ties to the University.

Urbana city planner Rebecca Bird said in the seven years she has been with the city, the commission hasn’t rejected an application for a property. But she said the group doesn’t receive too many applications; only 14 individual landmarks exist in Urbana.

“We didn’t have legislation to designate (a property historic) until 2000,” Bird said. “In the ’70s and ’80s, people thought it was (a benefit). It was an honor and people wanted it, and kind of in 2000, there was a swing back the other way, thinking it was more of a curtailing of an individual property owner’s rights.”

The block is part of a plan called the Lincoln-Busey Corridor, designed to provide a buffer zone between the University and residential Urbana. The idea is to have more multi-family or group living on the Lincoln side and single-family living on the Busey side.

Darshan can be reached at patel174@dailyillini.com and @drshnpatel.