Geneva project moves forward

The Geneva City Council Monday preliminarily tweaked plans for a public plaza at the yet-to-be-built Dodson Place Building 8 commercial-residential development at Crescent Place on the west side of Third Street, near the Metra station.

It also gave the thumbs-up to letting the building add a story, for a total height of 46 feet.

The council set a square-foot price of $25 for the 2,500 to 3,000 square feet of land the developer, Shodeen Inc., wants to buy from the city to create an entrance to underground parking for the development.

The council also authorized a pact wherein 12 of those underground spaces would be designated for use by the commercial tenants of the building, to fulfill zoning requirements for the number of parking spaces for the commercial portion of the building.

The rest of the spaces in the garage will be designated for use by the residents of the condominiums in the building.

Other revisions to the site plan include the elimination, for now, of a fountain on the city-owned portion of a public plaza at the southeast corner of the development, to save money.

The whole plaza was to have been 5,250 square feet. It will now be 2,250 to 2,750 square feet.

Additionally, Shodeen is no longer asking for permission to use the city-owned portion of the plaza in the summer for outdoor dining for a restaurant tenant. As a result, a seating wall and trellis that would have defined the area have been eliminated. And now, the city will maintain the plaza, not Shodeen, as was originally proposed.

The revisions will be brought to the city council for formal approval Nov. 19.

Dodson Place 8 is part of a plan approved in 2001.

Dodson Place Buildings 1-7 are on the east side of Third, on property that used to contain the old Community Hospital. They house offices, restaurants and stores.