St. Charles alderpersons on Tuesday to decide fate of apartment building as currently proposed

St. Charles aldermen on Tuesday will decide the fate of current plans to build an apartment building near the Fox River in St. Charles.

Alderpersons on the St. Charles City Council’s Planning and Development Committee on Aug. 22 voted 5-3 to recommend approval of the planned use development and preliminary plans for the River East Lofts project. But a straw poll taken at the meeting indicated that the proposed vacation of Indiana Avenue lacks the supermajority – the affirmative vote of eight alderpersons – that it would need to move forward.

Based on the discussion at the meeting, the requested right-of-way vacation has been reduced to only include portions of Indiana and 2nd avenues. Developer Curt Hurst and his son Conrad own Frontier Development, which has been involved in several projects in downtown St. Charles.

“The right-of-way requested to be vacated is now located entirely outside of the central downtown TIF district,” St. Charles Community Development Director Russell Colby said in a memo to alderpersons.

Once a municipality creates a TIF district, its property assessment is frozen and new or increased taxes generated by improvements are used to pay for improvements or other development incentives.

During Tuesday’s St. Charles City Council meeting, alderpersons will first vote on an ordinance vacating portions of South 2nd Avenue and Indiana Avenue rights-of-way. If a supermajority of the alderpersons approve the ordinance, they will then vote on an ordinance granting approval of a special use for a planned unit development along with preliminary plans for River East Lofts.

“If this ordinance does not pass, the subsequent ordinance for the River East Lofts PUD cannot be voted on,” Colby said.

If the plans are not approved, Frontier Development could develop the property by right without a PUD and without a use of any city right of way. The plans have been scaled back after neighbors voiced concerns about the building’s height. Newly revised plans for the River East Lofts project call for reducing the building from five stories to four stories.

The project is proposed to be built at the southeast corner of Illinois and Riverside avenues on the site of the former St. Charles Chamber of Commerce building.

Previous plans had called for the building to be 59 feet, 8 inches tall. The zoning district for the area only allows for a maximum building height of 50 feet.

The current plans show the building would be a maximum of 50 feet tall, so the developer is no longer requesting a variance from the city. The apartments would be located on the building’s upper floors while commercial and retail space would be on the first floor.

In addition, the number of units has been reduced from 43 to 42 and the unit mix has changed from 27 one-bedroom/16 two-bedroom units to 12 one-bedroom/30 two-bedroom units. Revised architectural plans have been submitted.