Geneva residents fear traffic problems from new St. Charles apartments

Some Geneva residents are imploring city officials to do something to prevent traffic problems they say will be exacerbated by the new Prairie Winds apartment complex in St. Charles.

Geneva officials said earlier this week there's not much more they can do now.

"The reality is St. Charles has the right under law to develop as they see fit, and with a boundary agreement on a shared road we have the right to comment on the impact of that development on our roadway, and we have done that," Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns said Monday.

St. Charles approved the apartments May 1. They are to be built west of the Lowes store along Bricher Road. Its two entries are off Bricher.

Residents of the Fisher Farms homes, south of Bricher, fear apartment residents will use Fisher Drive to avoid backups on Bricher at traffic lights between Lowes and Geneva Commons, and at Randall Road. They told the city council this week they sometimes have to wait through several signals to get through the intersection.

Westbound Bricher often backs up, as drivers wait to turn left into Geneva Commons. The traffic study for the apartment complex did not include that intersection.

"Anybody in their right mind would have done a traffic study at that light," resident Kelly Huskey said, adding she also worries about safety of pedestrians on Fisher.

Geneva reviewed the developer's traffic study and persuaded St. Charles to require changes, including right-turn lanes at both entrances. Traffic counts did not warrant installation of traffic lights, Geneva Public Works Director Rich Babica said.

Residents suggested traffic should enter and exit to the north, through land the developer also owns, to Route 38.

The Geneva residents had hoped a bit of "housekeeping," as Burns called it, could be used as leverage to force changes.

Bricher is the boundary between the cities. Geneva has jurisdiction over the road.

In May 1992, the trust that owns the land where the apartment complex is planned deeded a strip along Bricher to the City of Geneva. But the deed was never recorded, according to Geneva's attorney, Charles Radovich. The error was discovered during the sale of the apartment land to developer Executive Capital Corp. So this week, the trust asked the council to accept the land and record the deed.

Aldermen asked if refusing to accept the land could hold up the apartments. But the owner of the Prairie Winds site already has a right to have two entrance/exits on Bricher, per another long-standing agreement between the towns, Radovich said.

The city council votes Monday on accepting the deed.