University officials are threatening eminent domain to acquire a Champaign local landmark to demolish and make way for a 900-space parking deck.
They are number 1 in men's basketball, but how about historic preservation? The University of Illinois intends to exercise eminent domain on a 27-unit historic apartment building which occupies a single residential lot on the edge of campus, to proceed with construction of a parking deck, but leave a surface parking lot on the same block untouched. The Georgian, built in 1925 and owned by the same local family since 1950, just made it through the local hoops to gain local landmark status from the Champaign City Council last week, but the University served the property owners with an offer on the building during the landmarking process, noting eminent domain procedures would be filed.
Thanks to Alice Novak
FULL STORY: UI, family at odds over building

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