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Council approves Gardner School PUD with direction to address Route 38 sidewalk
Summary
Saint Charles approved a preliminary PUD and subdivision plat for the Gardner School child care at Prairie Center Lot 7 with direction that sidewalk along Route 38 be provided or that the developer and city reach a mitigation agreement; developer proposed alternatives such as paying into a public-works fund.
The Committee of the Whole voted Feb. 2 to approve a preliminary plan and plat for a Gardner School child-care facility in the Prairie Center PUD, with council members directing staff and the developer to resolve whether a sidewalk will be constructed along Route 38 or whether funds or other mitigation will be used.
City staff told the committee that the Prairie Center PUD approved in 2017 did not show sidewalks along Route 38; the city’s 2023 bike-and-pedestrian plan now calls for a Route 38 sidewalk from 14th Street to the western city limits. The Plan Commission recommended approval on Jan. 6 by a 4–2 vote with a condition that sidewalk be provided along the Route 38 frontage.
Several alderpersons said they supported adding sidewalk because of concentrated pedestrian activity—apartments, a gym, grocery store and bus stops—near the site. A council member raised placement and buffering questions for the child-care play area; staff replied the site will be fenced and the outdoor play area is north of the building so the building itself buffers the play area from the road.
Developer representative Chris Fazend, with Gardner School’s real-estate team, told the committee that the original PUD design intentionally routed pedestrians into the interior of Prairie Center and that constructing a short sidewalk segment on Route 38 could lead to a segment that connects to no crosswalks, signals or stop signs. He suggested as an alternative that the developer could pay into a public-works fund to allow the city to address the broader stretch in the future, and noted requiring sidewalk now could trigger IDOT/engineering reviews and extend the timeline.
Council made and seconded a motion to approve the PUD with the sidewalk direction; the clerk recorded roll call and the chair announced the motion passed. The committee directed staff and the developer to work toward an agreement on how to provide or mitigate the Route 38 frontage sidewalk obligation.
The action sets the sidewalk determination for future Prairie Center outlot projects, since staff described this site as the first of several expected projects along that frontage.
