The DeKalb City Council is waiting for further information on the renovation of the former Bromley Hall, 830 Edgebrook Drive, before it decides whether to approve a special-use permit for the building.

Owner Jerry Cherney is reconfiguring the building for use as a rooming house, apartment building or a combination of the two.

The council considered giving Cherney permission to build a 116-person occupancy combination at Monday night’s council meeting but decided too many questions remained unanswered.

“I still have a problem with the number of efficiency apartments or one-room apartments,” 3rd Ward Alderman Steve Kapitan said. “I don’t see how these numbers [of rooms] could be fit into the building.”

Cherney gave the council a preliminary floor plan containing 89 boarding rooms and a two-bedroom apartment.

The plan included 12 rooms measuring 8 feet by 7.5 feet.

“I don’t think that should be considered a room,” 6th Ward Alderman Dave Baker said.

The council tabled the vote on the special-use permit indefinitely.

“There are just so many questions,” Baker said.

The city council also postponed its vote on a $50,193 grant to the owner of O’Leary’s Irish Pub & Grill, 260 E. Lincoln Highway, citing more unanswered questions as the reason for the delay.

The money would be given to owner Mel Witmer to knock out some walls and install a larger-than-anticipated elevator, said Paul Rasmussen, community development director for DeKalb.

The elevator for the two-floor restaurant is required by the state to be large enough to fit a hospital gurney.

Should the business close down within its first five years, a prorated portion of the grant would have to be repaid to the city, Rasmussen said.

The city approved a similar grant of $56,600 for the building’s facade at its Jan. 12 meeting.

Baker and 5th Ward Alderman Pat Conboy both said they were unaware at the January meeting there would be an additional request for funding and asked that city staff include a provision placing into the resolution a lien on the property.

The council voted to table the vote until the city returns with the provision and until the council has had more time to see floor plans for the pub.

Baker said he was especially interested in the plan for the bar area.

“I don’t want to be funding a bar; I want to be funding a restaurant,” he said.

Also at the meeting, the council welcomed Mark Biernacki to his first city council meeting as DeKalb city manager.