Tractor Supply store planned for St. Charles

A vacant parcel of land on the northwest side of St. Charles is slated to be filled by a Tractor Supply store after the city's plan commission gave its unanimous recommendation for approval.

According to Matt Gauntt, a civil engineer at SE3 who presented the proposal at Tuesday's plan commission meeting, the location at the northeast corner of West Main Street and Cardinal Drive will draw customers from a radius of about 20 miles who are likely to also shop elsewhere in the city.

"They bring in customers from a long way because there's specialty products that no one else has," Gauntt said. "We hope Tractor Supply will be a great addition to the community, and we're very excited about it. We think it'll bring a good amount of tax base.

"We also think that it will accentuate some of the other businesses in town," he said. "You probably don't drive 30 minutes just to pick up one tractor part. You're probably shopping somewhere else too. So we'd rather bring them here to St. Charles than some other community."

Tuesday's meeting served as the second public hearing for the proposal. Representatives from Mend St. Charles LLC, which purchased the site, tweaked the original plan presented on March 2 to address commissioner concerns. Changes included adding landscaping along Woodward Drive to the north, enhancing screening at the northeast side of the property, reducing the amount of impervious surface on the site and improving the building architecture and fencing around the sales area.

The 3.5-acre site will feature a 19,000 square-foot building with 18,000 square feet of outdoor sales space. Access will be from Woodward Drive with 88 parking stalls available.

The proposal next moves to the planning and development committee of the city's aldermen, which could give final approval at its next meeting on April 12.

Gauntt noted Tractor Supply's tradition of community involvement as an added benefit of coming to St. Charles.

"Tractor Supply tries to be a really good neighbor and a good part of the town," Gauntt said. "Across the nation, Tractor Supply is involved in organizations like Future Farmers of America. They do get involved with the community."