Developer to revise plans for residential building in St. Charles following city council vote

A developer still plans to build a residential building near the Fox River in St. Charles after it failed to get enough alderpersons to support a plan to vacate portions of South 2nd Avenue and Indiana Avenue rights of way as part of the project.

Frontier Development wants to build the project at the southeast corner of Illinois and Riverside avenues on the site of the former St. Charles Chamber of Commerce building. During Tuesday's St. Charles City Council meeting, only seven of the 10 alderpersons voted in support of vacating the right of way.

Vacating right of way means transferring all or a portion of public right of way to private ownership of a contiguous parcel of land. As proposed, the River East Lofts project was contingent upon the city council's approval of vacating right of way for, at a minimum, the building footprint.

The proposed vacation lacked the supermajority - the affirmative vote of eight alderpersons - that it would need to move forward. Because a supermajority of the alderpersons did not approve the vacation ordinance, they did not get the chance to vote on an ordinance granting approval of a special use for a planned unit development along with preliminary plans for River East Lofts.

Frontier Development now plans to develop the property by right without a PUD and without using any city right of way. Developer Curt Hurst and his son Conrad own Frontier Development, which has been involved in several projects in downtown St. Charles.

The plans will not require city council approval. Because the property is in the city's historic district, the plans would require review by the city's Historic Preservation Commission along with a city building permit.

"We are moving forward with a plan that we can build within the existing ordinance without vacating any of the street or any of the land south of what property we currently own," Curt Hurst said Wednesday.

The plans had been scaled back after neighbors voiced concerns about the building's height. The most recent plans for the River East Lofts project reduced the building from five stories to four.

Previous plans had called for the building to be 59 feet, 8 inches tall. The zoning district for the area only allows for a maximum building height of 50 feet.

Recently submitted plans showed the building would have been a maximum of 50 feet tall, so the developer was no longer requesting a variance from the city. In addition, the number of units was reduced from 43 to 42. The unit mix was changed from 27 one-bedroom/16 two-bedroom units to 12 one-bedroom/30 two-bedroom units.

Because Frontier Development will be moving forward without a PUD, it will only be able to build 20 to 21 dwelling units, Hurst said.

"The rest of the building will now become retail," he said.

And the new proposal is likely to cause more traffic problems than the previous plan would have, Hurst said.

"Commercial uses inherently generate a much higher demand on parking and traffic," he said. "We're going to have to have some combination of office and retail to make up the loss of density."

St. Charles Mayor Lora Vitek expressed disappointment in the vote at Tuesday's meeting.

"This project had the support of a majority of the city council and several residents who spoke at the meeting," she said. "Unfortunately, this project needed a supermajority to move forward. I appreciate the time and effort of city council, staff, and the developer throughout the many public discussions about this project. It's really unfortunate because this project would have helped support our local businesses and was something that the entire city could benefit from."

Based on previous discussions of the issue, the requested right of way vacation had been reduced to only include portions of Indiana and 2nd avenues, excluding the triangular green space.

"That is not included as part of the vacation request," St. Charles Community Development Director Russell Colby told alderpersons during the meeting.

During Tuesday's meeting, 5th Ward Alderperson Steve Weber proposed reducing the vacation by an additional 18 feet on Indiana Avenue.

"The ownership of the lower patio and the green space would go to the city," Hurst said of Weber's proposal. "And we were still going to improve it and maintain it."

With 1st Ward Alderperson Ron Silkaitis, 4th Ward Alderperson David Pietryla and 4th Ward Alderperson Bryan Wirball voting against the proposal, the proposed vacation lacked the supermajority needed for the project to move forward. Pietryla and Wirball, who represent the ward where the project is located, have been listening to residents about their concerns.

"My intention is to ensure my constituents that there won't be any additional building on the triangular green space," Pietryla said after the meeting. "Keeping that space open and usable is a consistent theme that I've heard from both supporters and critics of this project."

He said the city's comprehensive plan does illustrate a second four-story building on the triangular site and Indiana Avenue. While Pietryla said he appreciated Weber's proposal, he said he would not participate in any final votes "unless I see a completed draft with recommended and agreed-upon revisions."

Wirball made similar comments during the meeting.

"I'm not going to make any amendment tonight to make a change until I see it in writing," he said. "The last time we made a change was for a gas station on Main Street and 11th Street, and it came back completely different than what we voted on at committee. So for me, I'm not going to engage in a conversation until I see it on a piece of paper."

Wirball and Pietryla also were advocating for restrictions on the height of the building's rooftops to give peace of mind to the surrounding residents. Before voting against the right of way vacation, Silkaitis thought that the discussion of the project should continue.

"We're almost there," he said.