Apartment Plans Stalled After St. Charles City Council Vote

ST. CHARLES, IL — Developers for a proposed apartment complex in St. Charles will again need to revise its plans after the St. Charles City Council voted down its "right-of-way" plan.

The St. Charles City Council voted down the developers request for the city to vacate portions of of the city's rights of way for South 2nd Avenue and Indiana Avenue to allow the project to move forward. The project is contingent on city officials approving the right of way for, at minimum, the building footprint.

Since the measure did not pass, city councilors could not vote on the developer's planned unit development.

In recent months, the St. Charles plan commission and city council's planning and development committee gave the River Street Lofts project a green light. The planning and development committee hearing voted in favor of the planned unit development, before sending it the city council for final approval.

Under current proposed plans, the River East Lofts would be a mixed-use building located at the southeast corner of Illinois and Riverside avenues. The site, which is the former location of the chamber of commerce building, is currently a parking lot with bank ATM and an office building.

The proposed building would contain retail space and parking on the first floor. The top three floors would have 42 residential apartments.

Curt Hurst , with Frontier Development, told Shaw Media his company will be moving forward with plans to develop the property without using the city's rights of way. The project will then require approval by the city's Historic Preservation Commission, since the property is in the city's historic district, and a city building permit but will not require city council approval, according to the newspaper.