Townhomes scrapped from St. Charles housing project

The developer of a controversial subdivision approved in St. Charles has had a change of heart and now wants to build nothing but single-family homes on the property, and that may be softening the hearts of the 400 residents who petitioned against it.

Aldermen approved the $40 million, 130-unit Lexington Club subdivision two years ago in a last-minute flip-flop of positions despite the opposition of the residents.

On Monday, Lexington Vice President Bill Rotolo said the new vision is 112 single-family homes, no townhouses. Those 112 homes will come in six different sizes and up to four different designs in an effort to provide a widely varied look, as residents in neighboring subdivisions have repeatedly requested.

"We're completely changing our plan," Rotolo said. "Our goal is to go to single-family housing, which is, in this market today, in far more demand than attached housing in this area."

That's a full reversal in the market reading the Lexington development team came to the city council with two years ago. Originally, developers wanted to build 142 units on the site, but aldermen negotiated that down to 130 units in the final approval two years ago. Those 130 units broke down into 102 townhouses and 28 single-family homes.

The deal also involved giving $5.6 million to the developers to reimburse the costs of cleaning up known soil contamination left behind by the former Applied Composites manufacturing business that occupied the 27-acre site.

The $5.6 million will still go to the developers under the change. That money will flow to the developers as the land improvements slowly increase the tax value of the property.

Rotolo said the housing market is still very slow compared to pre-recession days. In fact, his studies suggest they will sell only about two of the 112 homes each month.

Because of that, he said, they'll start with an initial construction phase of only about 20 homes. The average sale price will be about $400,000.

City residents had high praise for the move to single-family homes and the architectural renderings.

"This makes my heart go pitter-patter," said David Amundson. "It's a big improvement."

But that didn't stop Amundson and aldermen for asking for even more changes.

Alderman Ron Silkaitis noted that the development team still wants approval to deviate from city code in eight different areas. The area of primary concern is maximum building coverage. Code allows for a maximum of 25 percent. Lexington wants 45 percent.

"I'd like to see wider lots," Silkaitis said. "Otherwise, I'm pretty content with it."

Aldermen agreed with that sentiment, but they encouraged Rotolo to move forward and come back with a fully revised plan for a vote. That vote will most likely come in February.