Battle Over Planned 9-Story Elmhurst Building Continues

ELMHURST, IL – A developer continues to fight Elmhurst's rejection three years ago of a proposed nine-story condo building downtown.

Last summer, a DuPage County judge ruled for the city. But the developer, Oak Brook-based RSCK Holdings, appealed.

The developer had planned the building on York Street across from City Hall, with retail space on the ground floor.

Under the city code, the developer could only build up to six stories, unless the council granted an exception.

In March 2023, the City Council voted 11-1 against the request for the complex at 196 to 202 N. York St., where an old house and building now sit.

In a filing with an appellate court last fall, the developer labeled as "absurd" Elmhurst's justification that RSCK's building would be "out of scale" with other York Street structures.

The reasoning contradicted the city's 2016 downtown plan, the company said. The plan's language, the firm said, encourages developers to build taller structures next to older, shorter ones because they were expected to redevelop over time.

The $26.6 million project would have replaced two existing rundown buildings with 28 million-dollar condos, according to the appeal.

Under the downtown plan, the specific property in question was labeled as a "catalyst site," where new development would spark other development beneficial to downtown, the developer said.

As such, the brief said, the city's denial was "100% irrational, arbitrary and unreasonable."

In further irony, the developer said, the property now sits vacant and completely undeveloped with no increased tax base, no money generated for a special tax district downtown and no "catalyst" effect for nearby lots.

During hearings for the project, neighbors, particularly in the One95 six-story condo complex, contended that the shadowing from a nine-story building would affect them negatively.

In 2019, the city approved The Fynn apartment complex, which is nearby on Addison Avenue. Two years later, the 212-unit complex was completed.

At the time of its approval, The Fynn was to be the tallest downtown building, blocking sunlight for nearby one- and two-story buildings, RSCK said in its brief.

"In stark contrast, just three years later, the same City denied RSCK's Project as being detrimental to the public welfare because it would cast shadows and block light and air on the very same one- and two-story properties already in the shadows of The Fynn," the brief said.

In its response last month, Elmhurst said Illinois had no reported case in which a denial for a special use was overturned because it did not comply with a long-term plan, such as the one for downtown.

"(RSCK) erroneously bases its entire argument on the misconception that Planning Documents have the force of law," the city said.

The city said The Fynn, which contains a large, open second-story courtyard, sits between a bar's parking lot and a six-story apartment building. It is across the street from another five-story apartment complex.

The city contended that none of the circumstances that resulted in RSCK's denial were present at The Fynn.

Oral arguments in the case have not been set.

RSCK is represented by Louis Bernstein of Chicago-based Ginsberg Jacobs.