Elmhurst residents and others wanting to comment on a proposal to build a nine-story condominium building on York Street across from City Hall will have another opportunity as Zoning and Planning Commission members have set a second meeting on the plan for Oct. 18.
The proposal from RSCK Holdings LLC of Oak Brook is for a 109-foot tall building almost completely filling the site at 196-202 N. York St. That site now holds an outdated two-story commercial building and a small vacant bungalow which one of the developers described as a dilapidated version of the house in the movie “Up.”
The original proposal is for 28 luxury condominiums on seven residential floors over two floors of above ground indoor parking to be known as The Residences at 200 North York. The developer, calling the original 28-unit proposal Option A, has also submitted Option B which takes two condo units off the top floor to provide a setback from the streetside facade and Option C, which eliminates the entire top floor, reducing the residential unit count to 24.
City officials said that commissioners will be considering the nine-story original version.
Neighbors, local business owners and others have raised several issues in objections to the project, both in documents filed on the city’s BoardDocs site and in public comments before the Commission at its first hearing on the project, a three-hour meeting on Oct. 4. Comments and documents relating to the case, including the developer’s 106-page Oct. 4 presentation, can be found at: http://go.boarddocs.com/il/coe/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CHDRG7695874
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New or additional documents and comments can be emailed to City Planner Eileen Franz at [email protected].
Project issues begin with building height and what’s called massing. But they also include concerns over blocking sunlight and shading other buildings nearby. Concerns were also expressed about construction activity and materials storage and the potential impact on parking and traffic on York and on businesses along the street as well.
Regarding the height of the building, Scott Day, the attorney representing RSCK, recapped years of the city’s own downtown plans and zoning ordinances. Day said the most recent city versions allows for a building height of 77 feet “by right,” and up to 125 feet as a permitted conditional use in the central business core of the city. The condo proposal original plan (Option A) is for a 109-foot tall building.
Regarding massing, the design of the project calls for a little over two feet of setback from the property line to the building front, about three and a half feet from the rear property line to the building foundation and slim setbacks from the property line to the foundation on both sides.
Both issues have prompted calls from neighbors living in comparable luxury condos just west of the proposed new building in the Elmhurst One95 building, 195 N. Addison Ave., to call for the proposed building to be limited to 77 feet in height, perhaps by putting some of the parking underground. They have also called for additional setbacks, particularly on the back of the building site, which shares an alley with the One95. Plans show two proposed entries and exits from the alley to the 200 York project parking areas which are nearly opposite the One95 garage door.
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Paul Kiser, a resident of the One95 building, called the proposed building “an anomaly” that will impact sunlight and privacy for those living in the One95 building, and also raise traffic safety concerns in the alley between the two buildings, an alley which also carries traffic from the adjacent apartment building The Fynn as well businesses along both Addison and York.
Since the proposed building takes up nearly its entire lot, construction traffic and especially the staging and storage of construction materials were concerns for many of those at the past meeting, including several commissioners, among them Commission Chair Susan Rose and commissioners Kevin Byrnes, Susan McCoyd and Melissa Pittman.
The plan laid out by development team members for nearly the first year of construction calls for eliminating 16 parking spaces on the block south of Third Street (seven on the east side, nine on the west) and consolidating all York traffic into two lanes on the east side of the street. That would leave two lanes open on the west side in front of the proposed building — one for construction traffic and deliveries, and the curb side lane for storage and staging of materials.
Commissioner Pittman observed that “there’s a lot going on there. If there were some other options, that would be good.”
Beyond objections, developers point out some upsides to the project. According to their figures, if the full Option A version with 28 units is built, the project would generate $9.8 million in cash flow for the city’s downtown Tax Increment Financing district. Even the smaller 24 unit version would, they say, generate nearly $8.4 million over the same period. Estimated hard construction costs for the project are nearly $24 million.
However, developers acknowledged that if fewer units than the 28 called for in the original proposal are built, they are likely to request financial help from the city in the form of tax increment financing.
In a phone conversation with Pioneer Press after the Oct. 4 meeting, RSCK principal Colin Kelty said sale prices for the condominiums haven’t yet been set, but prices for such luxury units are likely to be in the $1 million range and up, which he said is comparable to prices in the One95 building.
“Our goal,” Kelty said, ” is to build a building that we’re proud of and that Elmhurst is proud of.”
Brian Myre, a physician with Elmhurst Hospital and also a resident of the One95 building, spoke to commissioners about the need for diversity in buildings and layouts.
“If we put up boxes at maximum height,” he said on Oct. 4, “everybody’s going to end up looking at walls.”
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.