Water Street project on City Council agenda
By Susan Frick Carlman scarlman@stmedianetwork.com March 1, 2013 2:06PM
Artist rendering of the proposed Water Street project in downtown Naperville. | submitted Nov. 2012
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Updated: April 4, 2013 6:39AM
The City Council Tuesday evening will once again discuss the controversial plan to develop 2.4 acres on Water Street west of Main Street in downtown Naperville.
After postponing the matter several times in recent months, City Council members are scheduled to vote at their regular business meeting on an agenda item to direct staff to prepare ordinances approving the Water Street plan. The proposal calls for a 166-room hotel, 71,000 square feet of commercial space, 26,000 square feet of office use, a 550-space parking deck, improvements along the Riverwalk, and a pedestrian bridge linking the hotel and the Loggia Building to the east.
Many around the city have praised the plan as an important development, especially in a still soft economy. However, others, especially the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation, have said the project is too big for the site. The height of buildings is still potentially troublesome to some. City staff members, who support the hotel plans, note that new revisions to the parking deck add 26 spaces, helped by the addition of a half-story ramp, but make the multilevel parking lot five feet taller.
“If there continues to be concerns regarding the height of the parking deck as viewed from Aurora Avenue (the increased height will not be visible when standing on Water Street), the parking deck design can be revised to remove the additional half-ramp, resulting in a reduced 524 space parking deck (65 feet approximate height),” staff members wrote in a memo to the Council.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers at the Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St., Naperville.
