St. Charles Towne Centre project clears first obstacle

Residents have pounded the St. Charles Towne Centre project with a slew of questions for months, but a unique, affordable housing plan by the developer survived its first test this week.

The Towne Centre project would bring a mix of retail and residential property to the old St. Charles Mall site. A local ordinance also requires the developers (Shodeen) to include 101 affordable housing units in the project based on the size of the plan. Shodeen asked the city for a unique exemption to that ordinance. The exemption would still bring all the affordable housing units required to the city, just not place them all within the actual Towne Centre development.

Shodeen's request to deviate from the law asks permission to construct only 25 percent of the affordable housing units at the Towne Centre site. Shodeen wanted to put another 25 percent of the affordable housing units across the street at the Wessel Court residential complex. Another 25 percent of the affordable housing units would go at the Covington Court residential complex. The final 25 percent would be established in an undetermined location within the city. Shodeen is also the developer of the Wessel Court and Covington Court complexes.

The St. Charles Housing Commission was the first hurdle to clear in the approval process to deviate from the plan. The commission gave its OK with a slight modification that will now go to the city's Plan Commission for consideration.

The modification the Housing Commission wants in Shodeen's affordable housing request would require construction of at least 50 percent of the affordable units at the Towne Center site. No matter what the mix ultimately is between affordable units and market-priced units, the plan only allows for a maximum of 675 residential units total at the Towne Centre site.

The Housing Commission also wants to see no more than 25 percent of the remaining affordable housing units required within the Wessel and Covington complexes.

That leaves no more than 25 percent of the units to be built at some unidentified location within the city. The Housing Commission initially debated a plan to force Shodeen to pay a fee in lieu of building those remaining units, but instead decided to require the establishment of an escrow account of the money required to build the remaining units.

The recommendation doesn't necessarily require any of the affordable housing to be built away from the Towne Centre site. But at least 50 percent of the units must be built on the Towne Centre site. The city's Plan Commission will likely discuss the Housing Commission's recommendation at the continuation of the Towne Centre public hearing set for 7 p.m. March 2 at city hall.