Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Plan Commission chairman promises panel will take as much time as needed to vet the draft plan before handing it off to the City Council.
Residents who on Monday felt disheartened by the St. Charles City Council’s approval of the Lexington Club development may have taken a measure of reassurance home one night later as the Plan Commission chairman promised a thorough look at the 2013 draft comprehensive plan. Once complete, the document is intended to be a guide for all future development in St. Charles over the next 20 years. Some of those who have been watching the task force work with the city’s consultant over the past 18 months to pull together the draft document are the same ones who were closely following the Lexington Club and Corporate Reserve developments, both with residential components on the city’s West Side. The City Council Planning and Development Committee …
Friday, December 28, 2012
City government in St. Charles was an ongoing source of news over the past year.
Government is always a top news generator from year to year, and 2012 has been no different, from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., to St. Charles, Ill. Nationally, it was the presidential and congressional elections, and the economic. Statewide, pension reform and government finances were among the hot-button issues of the past year. In St. Charles, city government activity also drew what was sometimes intense scrutiny during 2012. Two issues revolved around developers, another revolves around future development. Construction zones — particularly for the city’s Red Gate Bridge and continuing work by the state on Main Street/Route 64 — dominated the landscape for motorists throughout the year. City officials kept a wary eye on …
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Lexington Club developer has asked the city for more time to consider options before a formal City Council vote.
City officials said Wednesday morning the developer of the Corporate Reserve has withdrawn the application for a zone change to allow the construction of hundreds of apartments on the site of the business park. Meantime, the developer of the Lexington Club had asked the city to delay further consideration of its application for tax-increment financing, a key component of the funding for that project, whose cost has been estimated at $40 million to $45 million. The St. Charles City Council, meeting Dec. 10 as the Planning and Development Committee, dealt the two controversial projects significant setbacks. Aldermen voted unanimously to recommend the City Council reject outright the Corporate Reserve application. Aldermen also voted 7-2 to …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Two controversial development projects remain on the table pending formal action by the St. Charles City Council after its committee vote a week ago.
Monday night was St. Charles City Council’s last scheduled formal meeting of the year, and while some anticipated a final vote on the Corporate Reserve and Lexington Club developments, the items were not listed on the agenda. City officials had said last week that at least one, if not both of the projects, might be considered for a formal City Council vote at the Dec. 17 meeting. Alderman last week dealt significant setbacks to the Corporate Reserve and the Lexington Club projects. During their Dec. 10 committee meeting, aldermen recommended against a request for a tax-increment financing district for the Lexington Club in a 7-2 vote, and voted unanimously to recommend the denial of a zone change request at the Corporate Reserve, a …
Thursday, December 13, 2012
This week’s Corporate Reserve, Lexington Clubs decisions reflected in discussion of final revisions to St. Charles’ 2013 draft plan.
Just two days after a St. Charles City Council committee outright rejected one housing development and killed a key funding mechanism for another, a task force charged with crafting a guide for the city’s future growth ended its work on a draft comprehensive plan. The Comprehensive Plan Task Force voted unanimously Wednesday night to recommend its 2013 draft plan to the St. Charles Plan Commission, which is expected to begin its review of the 113-page document. The task force’s action included changes it made as members gave one final review of the draft plan and after they listened to more public recommendations about changes to the proposal. Key among those were in direct response to residents’ pleas as they related to the Corporate …
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Project had evolved from a 37.8-acre business park in 2008 to a development with about a third of its area devoted to apartments.
Monday night’s unanimous vote to reject the Corporate Reserve project must have come as a sharp blow to a developer that has made a number of concessions to the city since late 2011, upon shifting the proposal from a business park to include a residential component. Corporate Reserve received approval as a business park four years ago, which included rezoning 29.8 acres of the 37.8-acre site as an office/research planned-use development and another eight acres as a community business planned-use development. But the project since had evolved into a plan that included hundreds of apartments on about a third of the site, a change many residents in the area opposed and which, on Monday night, the St. Charles City Council Planning and …
Monday, December 10, 2012
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 …
St. Charles City Council Planning and Development Committee meets at 7 p.m. in City Hall.
Two items that have been a source of concern to residents — the Corporate Reserve and Lexington Club developments — are on the agenda tonight as the St. Charles City Council's Planning and Development Committee meets. The 7 p.m. is scheduled in the St. Charles City Council Chambers in the St. Charles Municipal Center. The agenda for the meeting is below, or you can download one: ST. CHARLES PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Alderman Cliff Carrignan, chairman 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 | City Council Chambers, 2 E. Main St. 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL 3. FIRE DEPARTMENT a. Recommendation to extend the Residential Sprinkler Moratorium until January 1, 2014. 4. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT a. Presentation of a Concept Plan for 1915 W. Main Street…
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
City officials object to removal of affordable housing units from development, question density.
Expressing concern over high density and a lack of affordable housing units in the proposed Corporate Reserve development, city aldermen continued discussion of planned changes until next month. After listening to a new proposal by representatives from JCF, the project developers, and continued concerns raised by residents who live on adjoining properties, officials continued the conversation until Aug. 13. The site north of West Main Street and Cardinal Drive was initially planned to be a large office complex with multiple office buildings and parking garages, however with the downturn in the economy and a demand for more housing in the area, the developers opted to erect high-end apartments in downtown St. Charles as opposed to …
Steve Swanson
1:49 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
I was happy to hear from friends who attended the January 28th Plan Commission hearing on the proposed Comprehensive Plan that the point I made on January 9th was fully discussed. When you come over the hill North of Dean Street and look at the St. Charles section of Randall Road, you know that this area needs a vision because it is one of the main gateways into the City. more ›