Towne Centre now in St. Charles council's hands

There was little doubt the St. Charles plan commission would pass along the mixed-use Towne Centre project to the city council Tuesday night. The only question was what stipulations the commission would place on its stamp of approval.

The number of residential units involved with the project - as many as 999 at one point - was the elephant in the room from the moment the plan arrived before the commission way back in November 2008. So it was no surprise that ears in the audience perked up Tuesday once the commission members began to debate how many units they were comfortable with.

Commissioners never entertained recommending against any residential units for the project, as some members of the audience had hoped.

The Towne Centre site, at Route 38 and Randall Road west of 14th Street, used to be home to the St. Charles Mall and was zoned strictly for commercial use.

The debate on residential units centered around essentially setting no limit and letting the city council sort it out or limiting the residential units to just short of 500 - and whatever precedent either direction would establish.

Shodeen, the developer, currently has a plan that calls for 675 residential units. A representative for Shodeen told commissioners there is no magic number of residential units needed for the project.

However, fewer residential units mean lower profits, and less foot traffic and activity that the commercial aspects of the plan would benefit from. That led some commissioners to stick to what Shodeen wants and commissioners to try to find a happy medium with residents who want little to no residential component.

"Five hundred residential units is nothing to sneeze at," said Plan Commissioner Brian Doyle. "It's not 675, but I think we should at least consider what velocity we want to see development going in the next 10 years."

The plan commission chose to limit the units to 487 by a 4-3 vote.

The Plan Commission eventually decided to recommend keeping the project at the 675 residential units Shodeen is requesting.

The project will now appear before city council members for the first time. The plan commission's recommendations are not legally binding on the council and may be disregarded completely if the council wishes.

Centre: Plan commission's recommendations aren't binding