Planners working on a new master plan for downtown Springfield have asked the public for ideas. Here are a couple: Don't tear down historic buildings to build surface parking lots. And don't provide public subsidies for wealthy corporations, or anyone else for that matter, to demolish buildings for surface parking.
Horace Mann Educators Corp. applied for tax increment financing to purchase and demolish buildings to provide parking just west of a building it is restoring for residential apartments. Though the City Council approved TIF funding for the project Tuesday, Landmarks Illinois, a statewide historic preservation advocate, has sent the council a letter stating that using TIF funds for demolition of 618 E. Washington would violate state law because the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure to the downtown historic district. Also, the Downtown Springfield Heritage Foundation has strongly opposed the planned demolition of 618 and 622 E. Washington, saying that the $600,000 in TIF money the City Council approved would be better spent to stabilize the buildings, and that original historic upper story facades of the buildings remain intact and can be restored.
The city center has sufficient parking. Demolition of a third of a city block just east of the Old State Capitol would an irretrievable loss, and would send the message that Springfield doesn't care about preserving its historic fabric. There are preservation alternatives, and better places to park. The Heritage Foundation is right in urging Horace Mann to "pause" their project, so these options can be explored. – Fletcher Farrar, editor
