Old Mill Park housing development back before Sycamore commission

SYCAMORE – The developer behind Old Mill Park, a 55-and-older living community in Sycamore, is coming back to the city Monday with scaled-back plans for the second phase of his development, city documents show.

A similar proposal for the second phase of development of Old Mill Park, which would sit across from the first phase on the north side of Mount Hunger Road, was denied city approval by the Sycamore City Council in August.

Brian Grainger, the property’s developer who also is responsible for developing hundreds of properties across DeKalb County over two-plus decades, said at the time that he wanted to add single-bedroom condos to the community that likely would have a starting price between $250,000 and $300,000.

So far, he has been unable to proceed with his plans, in part because the City Council questioned the need for residences that don’t have two bedrooms.

On Monday, he’ll once again discuss his development plans, but he’ll have some differences to highlight, according to city documents.

The second phase previously received city approval for an 84-unit development. But Grainger – arguing that there’s demand for smaller and more affordable properties in Sycamore – sought to add more than two dozen one-bedroom units to the second phase of the development.

That request was denied in a 3-4 vote in September, which meant Grainger had to resubmit a proposal for the development and, once again, meet with the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Grainger now is seeking city approval to increase the number of units in the second phase of the development to 110, six fewer than in his previous proposal, according to city documents.

The first phase of the project, which included 48 multi-bedroom condos in 12 four-unit buildings, received city approval in 2016 and can be seen from the corner of Route 23 and Mount Hunger Road in Sycamore. Only a couple of the four dozen dwellings are still under construction, and Grainger has turned his attention to the second phase of Old Mill Park.

Although some city officials have said they aren’t proponents of one-bedroom units, others said the density of the proposed second phase, which was higher than what Grainger previously indicated that he wanted to build, was the crux of the issue.

The new proposal for the second phase of Old Mill Park would have a density of 5.9 units per acre, which fits the medium density category that the development originally was approved for.