DeKalb officials question plans to add apartments to former Campus Cinemas building

DeKALB – City planners have raised concerns about parking problems and the structural safety of a developer’s plan to add a two-story apartment complex above the former Campus Cinemas building in DeKalb.

Developer Pete Occhipinti is seeking a special-use permit to add a second and third story to the former movie theater at 1015 Blackhawk Road. The upper floors would be divided into 22 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The four-screen movie theater on the ground floor would remain a theater, but with reduced seating capacity, according to city documents.

City officials have recommended the Planning and Zoning Commission deny recommendation to the City Council, which will make the final decision. The commission will consider the special-use permit at a meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 200 S. Fourth St., DeKalb.

“The applicant has not provided plans or documentation to prove that this project can be constructed safely or that the addition of 22 units will not generate a parking problem,” according to a city memo. “The applicant has also not demonstrated that the structure is capable of accommodating the structural load of a two-story addition, particularly given that the extended vacancy and lack of maintenance within the existing building could have created a breeding ground for mold and other conditions that would not structurally support this addition.”

Occhipinti, of Rockford, wrote in an application that he believes the remodeled mixed-use building would benefit the neighborhood.

“I feel since the character of the area is consistent with multifamily dwelling, building this project will only enhance, complement and increase the adjacent property value,” he wrote in the application.

Occhipinti’s plans for the existing single-story, 15,200-square-foot building at the northwest corner of Hillcrest Drive and Blackhawk Road include an addition to serve as residential entrance and lobby along with fire stairs to the ground floor, according to city documents. From the documents, it appears city officials had some difficulty in working with Occhipinti.

“It is unfortunate that the applicant chose to abandon the process and direct staff to move his case forward to the public hearing phase before the Planning and Zoning Commission because the applicant did not work with staff to consider site plan revisions that were necessary to allow code compliance, did not submit a set of plans that were consistent with the final site plans, and did not identify and request or pay application fees for any variations as part of the application,” officials wrote in a memo.

Occhipinti said he didn’t know how the commission would vote on his proposal in a brief phone interview Tuesday morning. He declined to discuss the project further. He said he wasn’t feeling well.

DeKalb’s Principal Planner Jo Ellen Charlton and Long-Range Planner Derek Hiland couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.