Schaumburg panel recommends first new apartment complex in 30 years
Schaumburg's first new apartment complex in 30 years finally was deemed worthy by the village's zoning board Wednesday after the developer dropped 12 of the originally proposed 192 units to allow more space for parking.
UrbanStreet Group LLC reduced the number of one-bedroom apartments from 140 to 128 on the 6.5-acre site at 680 E. Algonquin Road, near the Motorola Solutions campus. Some of the one-bedroom units that remain will be slightly larger in size now.
Bob Burk, managing partner of UrbanStreet Group, said the development is aimed at people of higher means who are renting by choice. Monthly rents are expected to start at about $1,000, with some larger units going for as much as $3,000.
Zoning board members had argued since the project's first hearing back in October that the development had inadequate parking.
UrbanStreet officials cited a marketing study showing that its initial plan for 224 parking spaces — including 159 garage spaces — was enough, and village staff concurred.
Nevertheless, the plan was 179 spaces short of what was required by the village's zoning code, and zoning board members remained unconvinced by UrbanStreet Group's assurances.
The zoning board at first asked for only 50 more parking spaces to be created. But when room was created for these, the zoning board asked for a final ratio of 1.5 spaces per unit on site — requiring at least 67 more spaces.
The new plan now provides 275 on-site spaces, 51 more than the original proposal.
One of the factors that triggered debate during the hearings was the developer's plan to share 74 existing parking spaces with a neighboring office building.
UrbanStreet Group argued that these spaces should be counted toward its parking quota. But zoning board members worried whether any change in the office building's ownership might change that deal. And representatives of the office building wanted a clear-cut deal to divide use of the 74 parking spaces between the two properties.
In the end, zoning board members were reluctant to count any of these 74 spaces toward the apartment complex's parking requirement.
Now that the project has won the recommendation of the zoning panel, the village board will vote on the proposal at its March 10 meeting.