Plan for senior housing in Elgin moving forward

Editor's note: This story was updated to include information about the current developer for Fox River Crossing.

Plans for a senior apartment complex at 300 N. State St., just outside downtown Elgin, are moving forward after the city council first approved them two years ago.

The city council approved Wednesday night amendments to the plan for Fox River Crossing, a four-story, 60-unit building at 300 N. State Street, on the northwest corner with Lawrence Avenue.

The amendments are about resident age restrictions, street setback and lot coverage, but the general building plan remains the same, Community Development Director Marc Mylott said. The developer has applied for building permits and construction could start in late summer or early fall, city officials said.

The initial developer was the nonprofit Buckeye Community Hope Foundation of Ohio, whose officials had estimated two years ago it would cost about $19 million to be funded mostly by federal housing tax credits. They had anticipated construction likely would begin in 2018.

The current developer is PIRHL, which is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and has an office in Chicago, said Dave Petroni, a former Buckeye vice president who now is vice president of development for PIRHL.

The developer will use low-income housing tax credits from the Illinois Housing Development Authority and project-based vouchers from the Housing Authority of Elgin, city officials said. Requirements include that at least 40 percent of the units be occupied by tenants whose income is at or below 60 percent of the area median gross income.

The original plan required at least one person over 55 in each unit and precluded people under 22 to live there for more than 90 days. However, the financing programs don't allow the under-22 restriction.

Under the amended plan, each unit will need to have at least one resident 62 years or older, and there will be no younger age restrictions. The building also will be set back slightly farther from the street and will have slightly less lot coverage, Mylott said. "We're working with them on the landscape design," he said.

The building includes one- and two-bedroom apartments with underground parking on the first floor and some parking in back. It will use some solar energy and have sound attenuation to deal with train horns from the nearby railroad tracks.

Drivers exiting the property will only be able to make a right, or go west, on Lawrence; drivers will be able to enter the property from both directions on Lawrence. The entrance along Route 31 will have right in/right out access.

There is a bus stop at that intersection but no bus shelter. The city will work with Pace Bus to have a bus shelter installed, to be maintained by the developer, Mayor David Kaptain said. "I think it's an amenity to the people who live there."