Homes won’t meet St. Charles standards

St. Charles’ diverse architectural heritage symbolizes past generations’ investment in the city, for themselves and future generations. Such is not the case with the proposed Lexington Club development that will diminish the city’s character. The individual houses are cartoons of St. Charles’ architectural heritage. The street plan is a low-cost, thoughtless solution isolated from the existing city grid.

It is the developer’s right to propose second-rate houses to make a return on their investment, made before the bubble burst in 2008, but it is not their right to expect the city and its residents to pay them to ensure those profits. The developers have been cunning in their efforts to seek assistance through variances in the zoning laws and TIF financing. They have tried to stretch the limits of the law to cheapen the product they are selling below the quality of what is acceptable in the city, ignored the dictates of the Comprehensive Plan and thus the voice of the community and basically asked the city to provide them a bailout.

The city council has the power and voice to say no to a development that will flood an already bloated housing stock with cheap and boring houses that will be segregated from the rest of the city. The parcel of land should be developed to enhance not diminish the city. St. Charles deserves buildings that represent the heritage of the past and hope for the future, not symbols of political expediency and financial greed.

Jennifer A. Amundson

St. Charles