Rezoning, variance sought for 4-story, 6-unit condo building at Jackson and Mill near downtown Naperville
A Naperville accounting firm wants to turn its one-story office building and adjacent parking lot at the northwest corner of Jackson Avenue and Mill Street into Riverwalk Place, a four-story condominium building with six units.
Lee Mandel, owner of Lee Mandel & Associates, is asking for the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation to rezone the property at 415 Jackson Ave. from an office, commercial and institutional district to a secondary downtown district that allows for multifamily residences.
In addition, Mandel is seeking a variance to reduce the front-yard setback along Jackson Avenue and to consolidate two lots — one for the building and one for the parking — into a single, 10,934-square-foot property.
Commission members will hear the request at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Naperville Municipal Center.
The plan is to demolish the existing building and parking lot to make way for the four-story multifamily residential building, city planner Gabrielle Mattingly said in a memo to the commission.
The exterior of the proposed building would primarily be brick with smooth metal and wood siding accent materials. Each unit will have its own private balcony facing Jackson Avenue.
Parking for the building would be in a ground-floor indoor garage accessible off Jackson Avenue.
The garage is to provide 14 parking spaces: two spaces per unit plus two additional spaces for guests.
A trash enclosure and bicycle parking will be provided inside the garage.
In the memo, Mattingly said staff has no concern with zoning change because it fits with the recommendations made in Naperville’s Downtown 2030 Plan.
Part of the intent of a secondary downtown district, she said, is to be a transitional area between the central retail core and residential areas.
Typical uses are as offices, service businesses and multifamily housing where there is a pedestrian-oriented environment, she said.
The proposed condominium building also is in compliance with maximum height and floor area ratio requirements established for a secondary downtown district.
Mattingly said staff also have no objections to the front-yard setback variance. The existing one-story building is two feet from the Jackson Avenue property line, she said, and the requested variance is in line with existing conditions.
Because of the 8-foot grade change of the property from north to south, the building has been setback 10 feet — double the required 5-foot setback — from the property line to the north.
Besides allowing for a more gradual grade change from Naperville Park District maintenance facility to the north to reduce any potential grading issues between the two buildings, the city’s public utilities requested a 10-foot easement, Mattingly said.
If a 5-foot setback was used, the city’s utility departments would need to discuss alternative options to provide adequate space for the development’s public utilities, she said.
Sandy Lijewski, who lives in the neighborhood, sent a letter to the commission opposing the development’s rezoning and setback variance requests.
