Romeoville trustees approve high-end apartments to replace Rose Plaza development

ROMEOVILLE – The vacant Rose Plaza commercial property in Romeoville will soon become a 292-unit high-end apartment complex, after village trustees approved a rezoning special use permit and planned unit development of the project.

Continental Properties, a Wisconsin-based developer, presented plans for the apartments to the village board Wednesday.

The project, called “Springs at Weber Road,” would rezone the 18.5-acre property, located off the northwest corner of Renwick and Weber roads behind McDonalds, from B-3 Highway/Regional Shopping District to R-7 General Residential District.

“We’ve discussed this for a very long time,” Trustee Dave Richards said. “We’re all glad to be at this point where we can move forward on this project.”

Springs at Weber

The apartment project includes 15 two-story apartment buildings, including a mixture of 30 studio, 112 one-bedroom, 120 two-bedroom and 30 three-bedroom units.

Amenities include a 4,000-square-foot clubhouse, 24-hour modern fitness facility, car care center and dog park.

The apartments are considered high-end, following the quality of “Springs” apartments built in other communities, Continental Properties representative Eric Thom said.

“Part of the reason why we first looked at the site was we saw a significant demand for rental housing [among renters aged 20 to 34],” Thom said.

The apartments will be gated off with a main entrance off the internal Rose Plaza private drive south of Grand Haven Circle.

Special use

A special use permit was required for the project because it contains seven code exceptions.

The residential density of the project is 15.8 dwelling units per acre, higher than the village’s 12 units per acre requirement. But Mayor John Noak noted that the density was lower than other apartment projects in the area.

Other exceptions include allowing a minimum studio size of 600 square feet, a reduced building separation of 30 feet, smaller parking stall and pavement widths, a temporary building for leasing purposes until clubhouse construction, a reinforced concrete storm pipe alternative and a lowered elevation for detached garages.

Some other considerations trustees and staff were concerned about include where retention water would go, ensuring the quality of the housing and traffic.

Village Engineer Jon Zabrocki said the property shares storm water retention with other developments in the area.

Thom said the project was modified to reduce unit density and improve outside appearance, pushing the estimated cost of the project to $42 million. He suggested the quality of the apartments can be seen in the rent, with a studio leasing for $1,000 a month.

Thom also said traffic would be greatly reduced compared to a commercial development.