Politics & Government

St. Charles Aldermen Kill Corporate Reserve, Lexington Club

If the St. Charles City Council next week affirms the Planning and Development Committee votes, both projects are dead for at least a year.

Residents opposed to new apartment complexes in parts of St. Charles were able to breathe easier as the St. Charles City Council Planning and Development Committee dealt what likely will be fatal blows to both the Corporate Reserve and the Lexington Club developments.

The full City Council is expected to take up both issues next week. If the aldermen maintain the votes they recorded Monday, neither project could be brought back before the council for a full year, barring a vote to reconsider. It was unclear late Monday what the City Council’s rules are governing the timeframe for a reconsideration vote, however unlikely such a vote might be.

Each proposal has been wending its way through the municipal approval process, and like other projects over the years, each one evolved as the applicants sought to make their developments more palatable to St. Charles officials.

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Ultimately, however, public opinion appeared to hold sway Monday — the committee vote comes four months before the April 2013 consolidated general election. Four people already have declared their candidacy for mayor, and five aldermanic seats also are at stake in the race.

The committee voted 9-0 to deny outright a request to allow Corporate Reserve Development LLC to develop about a third of its 37.8-acre site for multifamily residential development.

Find out what's happening in St. Charleswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Related: Corporate Reserve Falls in Unanimous Vote

The aldermen were divided in their vote on the Lexington Club, however. That vote may have been influenced as much by the city’s track record on tax increment financing districts as it was by community opposition to another proposal for high-density housing — in this case, about 100 two-story townhomes, as well as 27 single-family detached homes.

A motion to approve the TIF, considered by the developer as a make-or-break key to the financing of the $45 million project, failed on a 7-2 vote — 2nd Ward Alderwoman Rita Anne Payleitner and 5th Ward Alderman Ed Bessner were the only two members of the committee to vote for the Lexington Club TIF; 2nd Ward Alderman Clifford Carrignan had voiced support for the TIF as well, but as chairman of the committee cannot vote except to break a tie.

  • Related: Lexington Club Attorney Blames St. Charles Aldermen for Rejection

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