St. Charles residents continue to voice concerns about proposed five-story apartment complex

Residents continue to voice concerns about the size and mass of a five-story building being proposed near the Fox River in downtown St. Charles that would house one and two-bedroom apartments along with retail space.

“Where in town do we have a five-story building adjacent to single-family residential? asked St. Charles resident Bob Rasmussen, who himself is a developer, during a public hearing Tuesday in front of the St. Charles Plan Commission. “We don’t. I can’t think of one. And when we did five stories on First Street, it was a significant struggle to get that approved. But we weren’t next to single-story residential. We weren’t next to existing homes. And therefore, the five stories I believe made more sense.”

Martha Gass, who lives on South 3rd Avenue near the proposed development, told commissioners the new plans are better than previous ones.

“It’s still in need of scaling down to both complement our neighborhood and be more workable for our streets and parking,” she said. “How much of our daylight is going to be now obscured by the building? Everybody in our neighborhood feels like a three-story building would be very compatible with the neighborhood.”

The city has also received a number of letters from residents expressing their concerns about the project, including from former St. Charles alderperson Jo Krieger.

“This is an old neighborhood with narrow streets not designed for additional traffic,” she states in her letter. “The plan to narrow Riverside for additional parking will further add to the congestion. I do not feel this is the place for a building of this size.”

The public hearing was continued until the Plan Commission’s April 19 meeting.

The River East Lofts project is proposed to be built at the southeast corner of Illinois and Riverside avenues on the site of the former St. Charles Chamber of Commerce building. Developer Curt Hurst and his son, Conrad, own Frontier Development, which has been involved in several projects in downtown St. Charles.

The latest plans call for 43 total residential units, including 27 one-bedroom apartments and 16 two-bedroom apartments. Previous plans called for 48 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The building’s height also has been reduced. Concept plans had called for the building to be an average of 63 feet tall and now it is 59 feet, 8 inches tall.

However, the zoning district for the area only allows for a maximum building height of 50 feet. In talking about the project, Curt Hurst told plan commissioners the proposed development will “better add to the diversity of available housing options within the city, while having less impact on the city’s resources than a conforming use, including parking, infrastructure, schools and traffic.”

The project is set to generate $225,000 a year in new taxes for the city, Hurst said.

“We think that’s a significant opportunity for the city,” he said.

The project calls for Indiana Avenue to be vacated, which Hurst said will create many opportunities.

“The vacation of Indiana allows us to create a more cohesive open space experience than currently exists,” Hurst said.

He said that a traffic study determined the street’s closure will have little to no impact.

“It can be absorbed by the surrounding streets,” Hurst said. “By vacating this right-of-way, the city gains a beautified open space, pedestrian connectivity and a gateway element while passing the burden of the construction and maintenance of that cost to the landowner.”