AURORA - Pleasant Rowland got preliminary approval from village planners Wednesday night to convert a stately Main Street mansion into a Bed & Breakfast.

Rowland, the Wells College alumnus and former toy mogul, will be able to open a Bed & Breakfast in the Abbott House at 453 Main St., pending that her representatives can show compliance with state building codes and approval of signage for the business. Planners voted, 4-0, to allow the Bed & Breakfast, with Ken Kabelac abstaining. Kabelac didn't indicate Wednesday night why he abstained.

During the three-hour meeting, planners were presented some more details about the project, but building codes officer Ed Brockner wrote in a memo to the planning board that "there were too many questions unanswered."

Katie Waller, the executive director of the Aurora Foundation who will run the B&B, told planners she hoped to bring back building plans detailing parking, which rooms in the mansion will be used and what the signs will look like to next month's planning board meeting. However, she indicated that five bedrooms in the 30-plus mansion will be used and some work in the building, including adding some bathrooms, will be completed.

Rowland, founder of the American Girl Collection, purchased the mansion in 2001 from the estate of David Abbott for $1.1 million. It was assessed at $291,600. Rowland had not said what she planned to do with the mansion until now. Waller, who has been living there for the past two years, said Rowland came up the idea a few weeks ago.

Before the vote, about 20 people attended a public hearing on the project. Out of the dozen residents who spoke, seven said they supported the B&B.

Saying that she wasn't opposed to the B&B, village historian Sheila Edmunds said that Waller's involvement in running the business for Rowland "really blurring the concept" because Waller is also involved in the Aurora Foundation, which worked with Wells College to renovate the Aurora Inn.

Edmunds wasn't the only village official to voice concerns about the B&B. Zoning Board of Appeals chairwoman Bonnie Bennett said that the business means a commercial enterprise will open in a residential area of the village.

But village resident Bob Fitzgerald said the B&B will be a positive addition to Aurora and wished more would open in the village. They would go well with the inn and the other foundation projects that Rowland and the college has under taken in the past two years.

"A quiet B&B is probably the very best that can be done" and wouldn't be as disrupting as some other potential uses, said neighbor Randy Zabriskie.

Under village law, the planning board must determine the number of rooms that would be used for the B&B. According to state law, it could contain between three and five bedrooms. It was cleared up Wednesday night that Rowland would not have to live there, although most B&Bs are normally run by the owner, who also lives there.

Planning Board Chairwoman Nancy Gil pointed out one B&B in Skaneateles is run by someone else other than the owner, who lives across the street.

Considered "a home occupation," the resident of the home - not necessarily the owner - must live in the B&B, according to village zoning laws.

The mansion was built in 1902-03 by Alonzo Zabriskie, one of the more well-known families in the village, for his new bride. In 1967, Ithaca developer David Abbott purchased the manor, known for its horseshoe driveway, a large ballroom and a bomb shelter, as a retirement home.