St. Charles Plan Commission to review plans Tuesday for proposed mixed-use building in city’s downtown

The St. Charles Plan Commission Tuesday night will review plans for a proposed four-story mixed-use building at 1st and Prairie streets in downtown St. Charles.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. St. Charles-based J&B Builders, Inc. has filed a concept plan proposing a mixed-use building on the remaining vacant lot in the Brownstone planned unit development.

The Brownstone planned unit development was approved to enable redevelopment of the former Piano Factory Mall site for townhomes. The land use plan adopted as part of the city’s 2013 comprehensive plan identifies the property as mixed use.

The proposed 50 foot tall, four-story story building would front South 1st Street. The first floor would house commercial space and parking while up to 20 condominium units would occupy the second to fourth floors.

The condominium units would be owned, not rented.

Each side of the building contains a penthouse that extends 10 feet above the 50 foot roofline. The city’s 2005 planned use development ordinance calls for a maximum height of 49 feet.

“The zoning ordinance allows building elements extending above the main portion oft he building to be excluded from the building height calculation, just so the projection comprises less than 20% of the building footprint,” city planner Ellen Johnson said in her staff report. “The proposed penthouse projection meets this requirement at 14% of the building footprint.”

Plans also call for 44 interior parking spaces for building residents, accessed from Cobblestone Drive, along with 15 on-street parking spaces along 1st Street. According to the developer’s plans, the proposed project would “provide unique residential and business condominium units that not only provide a live/work opportunity to unit owners but also extensive outdoor living space.”