Public Hearing on Controversial Plan Set for Aug. 5

Nearly a month after aldermen concluded their informal deliberations over the 2013 draft Comprehensive Plan, the St. Charles City Council will hold one more public hearing on the plan to give residents one more chance to speak out about it.

There already has been many opportunities for residents to to voice their concerns — 18 months of the task force meetings couple with open houses and similar venues intended to gather public views on the various aspects of the plan.

The city issued a release on Friday announcing the public hearing, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5, 2013, in the City Council Chambers of the St. Charles Municipal Center, 2 E. Main St.

The proposed plan has become a hot-button issue on several fronts, particularly as it relates to future residential development on the city’s East and West Gateways. While some have opposed the idea of any new residential development in those areas, by far the touchier issue has been fears of apartment-type housing in the gateway areas.

Some would prefer to see the city mandate that only commercial or retail development be allowed in those areas — a move the City Council actually took earlier this month, stripping all residential development in the gateway areas from the plan. The council later reversed itself to preserve residential and mixed-use alternatives — a mixed use might have a store on the first floor and an apartment or office on the second — as options in the future.

The council’s flip-flop on that issue might serve well to illustrate some confusion about the comprehensive plan. Some believe the plan should be filled with well-defined options for future development to assure their vision for the city’s future is adhered to strictly.

But city planners and the city’s consultant have reminded the community time and again over the past two years that the comprehensive plan is a guide for future development. As a guide, it needs to be flexible enough to change as economic and development conditions change in St. Charles. They also have pointed out that the comprehensive plan lacks the legal weight and authority of the city’s zoning laws, for example.

Regardless, utimately, any deviations from the plan would require City Council approval.

They say the plan needs to be flexible to take into account changes in the economy, in development practices

The hearing comes nearly two years after the city began the process of rewriting its Comprehensive Plan, which planning officials view as a guide for future development and redevelopment in St. Charles  over the next two decades.

The city’s release on Friday states that the Aug. 5 hearing will serve as a final opportunity for residents to testify about the draft plan and the supplemental revisions recommended by the Plan Commission and the City Council Planning and Development Committee.

The process for pulling the plan together has been at times painstaking, not to mention time-consuming, as a task force worked with city consultant Houseal Lavigne Associates to draw up the draft. The process got started in May 2011, when the council decided to hire the consultant.

The seven-member Comprehensive Plan Task Force was appointed to guide the process of drafting the plan. Over the course of more than 18 months, the task force and consultant conducted regular meetings and held five workshops, two visioning exercises, and three open houses.

The task force all but concluded its role in the process in December, when it recommended the draft plan to the St. Charles Plan Commission. Task force members have remained involved in the process, however, largely to advise the commission and the council and to answer questions about the task force’s own activities.

The Plan Commission then conducted its own review of the draft Comprehensive Plan, which is recommended to the City Council in mid-March. At that point, the City Council Planning and Development Committee began its review of the plan over the course of three months, and on July 8 advanced it for formal consideration of the City Council, which set the Aug. 5 public hearing.

“We’re excited to be finalizing the city’s comprehensive planning documents,” St. Charles Planning Division Manager Russell Colby said in the city’s release. “Input from residents, property owners, and members of the business community has been vital throughout this entire process.”

The plan document and supplemental revisions are available for review on a special Web page that can be accessed via the city’s website. It also can be viewed at the Receptionist Desk in the St. Charles Municipal Center or at the Adult Reference Desk of the St. Charles Public Library, 1 S. 6th Ave.

The release states that written comments will be accepted by the Planning Division of the Community Development Department through Aug. 1, 2013. Please forward comments to rcolby@stcharlesil.gov.

Written comments also can be submitted to Colby by mailing them to 2 E. Main St., St. Charles, IL  60174 or by dropping them off at the Municipal Center.

For more information, please contact the Community Development Department at 630-377-4443.