Old Town Without Parking? 240 W. Willow
240 W. Willow in Old Town is a total gut rehab of an 1873 Victorian. It seems to have everything- except parking.
Will the lack of parking hurt this property at this price point?
Here’s the listing:
Fabulous historical restoration on Quaint St. in Old Town. Complete renovation/expansion of 1873 Folk Victorian single family to its original glory w/ today’s many amenities. Beautiful yard.
There is no parking on the property, which allows for a bigger yard! 95% of this home is all new, new owner can freeze tax’s! all Stainless Viking appliances, hardwood flrs throughout, ready to move in! 3 bedrooms up, 2.1 bths
I also can’t determine which floor the kitchen and living room are on. They appear to be on the lower level and the bedrooms on the upper floor.
@Properties has the listing. See the other pictures (including the door for the lower level) here.
240 W. Willow: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, no square footage listed
- Currently listed for $1.199 million
- Taxes are $8,192
- Central Air
- No parking
That kitchen needs an island. That must be why it is priced at only $1.199M (sarcasm).
I wonder what they paid for it.
it’s got one of those flat screen tv slots built in above the fireplace!
It’s cute as a button, but at the end of the day, it’s still an old FRAME Victorian COTTAGE, not some grand old Painted Lady. What’s a vacant lot go for over in that area?
I’m curious to see what is to the right of the house….looks like a tall building.
according to the trib, the paid 525k in December 2005.
its a 3 or 4 flat from the look on streetview.
next door to the right, i mean.
If zoning will allow, I would take the gate off the front and make that a parking pad. The home probably has a small back yard already and parking would help this unit sell.
LOL. Thankfully no way zoning would allow that. This is Old Town not Gary Indiana.
If this house is VICTORIAN (apart from being contemporary to the reigning queen in UK at the time) I am not typing this comment as we speak. Oh, sorry, FOLK Victorian – what does this mean , oh, sorry, I forgot realtors do not need to have any theoretical background in architecture, so they can make up styles.
“original glory” of what ? an employee’s family shack in a so-so part of town built right after the Fire on a small lot ? excuse me ! Where do I sign at twice the price it should sell for ? (525k in 2005)
LOL @ JL … That comment about the parking pad mad me laugh so hard that I nearly sharted.
They’ve probably done some work on it. Another site referencing the listing has a fairly recent photo with the front under construction, suggesting they installed the front stairway and might have done other work. Might not be worth double the 2005 price, but they probably made improvements.
I’d love to witness the new homeowner present plans to add a curb cut and carport to the Old Town Triangle Association’s zoning committee. Snort.
It’s news to me that Old Town Triangle is a “so-so” part of town. I guess if you don’t like clean, charming, safe, and convenient to downtown and the lake, then sure, it’s so-so.
I think must bs meant the “original glory” was so-so.
There are homes in Old Town with parking pads in front….maybe grandfathered in?
Butter up the alderman and you’ve got a parking pad. Though being in a landmark district might make that harder.
If you go to Googlemaps and use the Google Street view feature, you can see that 2 houses to the east there’s a frame house similar in size to this one, but instead of a ground level living space, they built a GARAGE. That makes a precedent for curb cuts and a garage in your basement, but if that’s the only solution, may as well sell it as a teardown.
It doesn’t set a precedent for curb cuts; I imagine it was approved before the city realized how idiotic random curb cuts are. You wouldn’t get approval now, especially there.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a “curb cut,” and what is the general objection to them? Just curious.
I’ll give that a shot.
If everyone were granted a curb cut, Old Town Triangle would be an ugly, unwalkable neighborhood unworthy of preservation. It’s a similar logic as that for zoning restrictions to begin with. If a charming, quirky neighborhood is a hot residential market with a great deal of market pressure to develop new units, it would cease to be the same neighborhood if every parcel were redeveloped with a highrise to meet demand thereby destroying the features that made the neighborhood desirable in the first place. Thus, the landmarking restrictions, like zoning restrictions, boost the collective neighborhood value by restraining individual values, because otherwise individuals could profit at the expense of the neighborhood by extracting the value of that location created by the surrounding properties.
Obviously this is a contentious issue, wherein people express markedly different opinions regarding what rules are justified for their own property versus those for all of their neighbors properties.
In this particular instance, Old Town Triangle on-street parking is governed by a permit zone restriction, and you can basically always expect to park within a block of your place. At this price point, however, it’s quite plausible that someone would expect garage parking for their luxury vehicle. That basically leaves you with the option of finding a rental space nearby, which is also possible, but possibly tedious if you drive daily.
This person over invested/renovated a less desirable property; and in a declining market these are the types of properties will be hurt the most.
At this price point you would expect, parking, more square footage, etc. Being in a landmark district these small cottages are the one you do not want to buy. They are impossible to add a second story addition to based on landmark guidlines.
The lot isn’t worth nearly what it would be w/o the historic preservation–you can’t just tear down this house; indeed you can make very few changes to *anything* that can be seen from the sidewalk. W/o the restrictions, the lot would likely sell for $750k+ even in today’s market.
These single family flip-jobs need 2-5 wood burning fireplaces. Old homes are supposed to have numerous fireplaces. And you can always install fireplaces that run on both wood and gas.
Spertia, a curb cut is when a portion of a street curb is eliminated so that a driveway can be put in. No new curb cuts are allowed in Old Town Triange historic district (bounded roughly by Clark on the east, North Ave on the south, and the ghost of Ogden Avenue on the west) because they eliminate one or more public parking spots on the street, they interfere with the free and safe passage of pedestrians on the sidewalk, and they are built to accomodate highly visible parking spots for motor vehicles in front of or next to a home, or to lead to a garage, all of which are aesthetically undesirable.
oddly enough, the listing website says “parking space: 2”
super cute no doubt, but this a cottage with no basement so your kitchen on the 1rst floor is going to be cold, parking is super tough over there, you will have to be non-drivers or leave your car parked and take public transportation daily, I would say this place requires some well off hardy souls.