With The Gardner School closer to gaining city approval, the city of St. Charles could implement the next step in a plan to address pedestrian safety and walkability in town.

The school’s development proposal is headed to the St. Charles City Council for final approval, and includes a condition that the developers install sidewalks along Illinois Route 38, filling out another portion of the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan and Complete Streets Policy.

If approved, the sidewalks would expand pedestrian access and connectivity westward.

The Council’s Committee of the Whole recently advanced final plans for The Gardner School in the Prairie Center development. The Council is expected to vote on the matter Monday night.

Despite that proposed caveat by the Council, developers behind the school build don’t support the sidewalk request, arguing it would prolong construction.

Given that the new school will welcome children requiring safe travel, committee members said the site must be improved.

“I would 100% want to support a sidewalk going in,” Alderperson Steve Weber said. “There’s so much pedestrian activity on that stretch right there between the apartments, the gym across the street, the grocery store, the bus stop, there needs to be a sidewalk connecting that.”

Adopted in 2023, the city’s street plan draws up connecting sidewalks along Route 38, from S. Fourteenth Street to the western edges of Peck Road.

Plans for the Prairie Center development, approved in 2017, do not include a sidewalk along Route 38, only inside the property. Owners and developers Shodeen envision commercial, mixed-use and around 670 residential units on the site.

Viking Development LLC hopes to build The Gardner School on a 1.6-acre site at the northwest corner of Lincoln Highway and Vanderbilt Drive.

Despite the city’s condition, Shodeen developers has requested St. Charles City Council not require them to install a sidewalk near the school, because that would extend the construction process, the developers said. Instead, they suggested they pay into a city fund for future installation. The committee did not support their request.

There aren’t any sidewalks along Route 38 on either side of Prairie Center, from South Fourteenth Street to Randall Road. Sidewalks are also absent on the south side of Route 38, according to city documents.

Alderperson Bryan Wirball said the school gives the city a chance to finish the entire front edge along the Prairie Center. He said this would greatly improve bike and pedestrian travel as connectivity improves westward in the city.

“I think if we don’t do it now, it’s never going to happen, and then that can connect to Fourteenth Street,” Wirball said.

Plans for the school propose a 12,209-square-foot, single-story brick building. The proposed building would be about 18 feet tall. Access points would come via existing shared drives off of Lincoln Highway. The plan envisions parking to the north and west of the proposed building.

Staff are recommending a 6-foot aluminum fence around the building and the playground area, according to city documents. They also said existing trees along Lincoln Highway must remain. Staff also are recommending developers install a sidewalk along the width of the property.

The Gardner School is expected to offer early childhood education and daycare services for infants through kindergartners. The company is a national network with several locations in the Chicago area that provides what’s described on its website as “academically focused” preschool and childcare for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.

The school describes its approach as a blend of traditional and Montessori styles of learning through structured play, child-directed activities and curriculum-based lessons, according to its website.