On the City Council agenda for Tuesday is a request to strip the Roanoke Apartments building of its historic landmark status. The Journal Star reports:

Second District City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken said all sides in the issues have been involved in discussions about the fate of the property, including members of the Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation, the grass-roots pro-preservationist group that would prefer to see a reuse of the apartments.

Van Auken also described the request to remove the landmark status as a one-time thing.

“The preferred route is to go to the (historic preservation) commission that recommends things to the council,” Van Auken said. “(The request) presented the opportunity to get a longstanding problem resolved. I would like to see the council take the opportunity to use it.”

The current City Council has been weakening the historic preservation ordinance ever since 2008 when they denied landmark status to the historic Duroc building and began a comprehensive review of the ordinance. This is just another nail in coffin. Despite Van Auken’s assertion that this would be “a one-time thing,” if the Council caves on this landmark, which has withstood legal challenges and been reviewed multiple times, they’ll cave on anything.