The Zeta Tau Alpha women’s fraternity house located at 1404 S. Lincoln Ave. is being considered by Urbana City Council for being marked as a local historic landmark.

After being discussed at the June 14 Urbana City Council meeting, it was unanimously voted to send back to committee to discuss creating amendments to the current ordinance. It was suggested by Charlie Smyth, Ward 1, to do this so that the property owner could easily replace the house’s windows while having the local landmark status.

This is because with the status, the owner would have to submit an application anytime they would want to make a change to the exterior, which would include windows. Council agreed that these windows need replacing if the house were to be occupied in the future as the house is currently vacant.

At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, council members will decide whether to send it back to council to be approved or denied for landmark status.

Because of a written protest composed by the property owner, Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity Housing Corporation, approval of the house being a local landmark would require two-thirds majority of the city council vote.

The housing corporation did not want the house listed as a historic landmark because of financial reasons and because the corporation believes the application is insufficient, according to its objection letter. 

During public comment, 10 Urbana residents spoke in favor of designating the Zeta Tau Alpha house, along with the Reed-Sutton House, another location that was applied for being a local historic landmark and was later approved. Three council wards also cited being sent a total of nine emails from residents unable to attend the meeting but were also in support of designating the two sites for historic preservation.

“They are the crown jewels of a historic neighborhood, and they should be preserved,” said Georgia Morgan, Urbana resident.

Henry Novak, an Urbana high school student, also spoke later in the meeting when the council was discussing the actual ordinance. He said that it easily meets the standards, especially considering that it was designed by Joseph Royer, an architect who is an Urbana native and University graduate.

“It’s a visual landmark in the eyes of its neighbors and of the community,” Novak said.

The local historical landmark application along with the owner’s letter of protest were presented at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting on June 5 after being pushed back by request of the owner. Prior to the meeting, the commission received 15 letters of support for the preservation of the house.

After discussion, the commission decided in a 6-0 unanimous vote that the property was qualified for historic preservation and recommended city council to approve the application.

Brianna Kraft, a recent graduate of the University had submitted an application for the building’s historic designation on April 8 as part of class she took her last semester on historic preservation. She said that the professor who taught the class, Alice Novak, suggested to the class that they submit an application for the Zeta Tau Alpha house for being a local historic landmark.

“As someone interested in furthering my career in the historic preservation of architecture and an enthusiast of old buildings, I thought it might be a great learning experience,” Kraft said in an email. “I am also very fond of the City of Urbana, so I thought that assisting with nominating a building as a local landmark would be a nice achievement to show my support for the area.”

Kraft said that Novak also showed a concern for the building as it has been vacant since 2009, and she feared that it could be targeted for demolition.

According to the memorandum for the building written by city planner Rebecca Bird, the Zeta Tau Alpha house was built in 1928 in a French Eclectic architectural style. According to the University archives, the chapter closed in 1993 due to a lack of membership and inability to fulfill housing and financial obligations. It was then rented out to a fraternity up until its closing in 2009 and has since been vacant.

The memorandum says that the city has encouraged the women’s fraternity to re-open a chapter on campus as its vacancy has made it more vulnerable to vandalism and trespassers.

According to the Urbana Zoning Ordinance, a building that has had an application submitted for it being named a landmark has to meeting one or more of seven criteria. The Zeta Tau Alpha house meets four of these criteria including having significant value as a part of a certain heritage of the community or state; representative of an architectural type that’s inherently valuable; notable work of a master builder or architect; and is identifiable as an established and familiar feature in the community.

Kat can be reached at [email protected].

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article printed in the Monday, June 24, 2013 issue incorrectly labeled Zeta Tau Alpha as a sorority. It is a women’s fraternity. The Daily Illini regrets this error.