ROCHELLE — On Monday’s meeting of the City of Rochelle’s Planning and Zoning Commission, members recommended that the city council approve a proposed preliminary and final plat of subdivision for an apartment development on Lake Lida Lane by a vote of 4-0 with two voters abstaining.

New Directions Housing Corporation wants to build a three-story, 30-unit workforce housing apartment building which will have family housing of two and three-bedroom apartments. Rents will be from $500 to $1,180. It will have a community room, library, exercise room and laundry facilities. Apartments will have full kitchens and bathrooms and on-site parking. Units will be handicap accessible. The site is just over five acres and will include a park and green space.

Workforce housing is for households with income between 60-120 percent of the area median income. Rochelle's median income is $50,000. 60 percent of that is $30,000 and 120 percent is $60,000. 

The proposed apartment building will go before the city council on Monday. NDHC is not asking for any incentives from the city. 

Engineering and architectural documents were submitted to the city and state in recent weeks and NDHC hopes to start construction early in the summer and it will take about a year to complete. 

NDHC is a nonprofit and has built and rehabilitated more than 500 multi-family and single-family units since its inception in 1994. Its purpose is to provide high-quality affordable housing to households who would otherwise be unable to afford safe and decent housing without undue hardship.

The city is required to notify neighbors within 250 feet of the plans and Community Development Director Michelle Pease said no responses were received from the city’s mailings to neighbors.

Solar

The planning & zoning commission unanimously recommended the city council approve a petition by Rochelle Solar to add the terms of 40 years to their special use permit for a future solar farm.

Last year, Rochelle Solar entered into an annexation agreement for 87.89 acres with the city for the southwest corner of Twombly Road and the North Caron Road proposed extension to develop a solar farm. The property was zoned for rural development at the time of annexation, which required a special use permit. That was granted, but Rochelle Solar now desires to go up to 40 years of special use to make it consistent with the language in its annexation agreement.

“That's good,” Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman Kurt Wolter said. “It makes you feel like it's a firmer, longer-term commitment. I'm still excited about this project and can't wait to see it break ground."

A proposed timeline shown by Rochelle Solar at the meeting said it plans to complete an interconnection agreement with U.S. power grid operator PJM in January 2024 before beginning construction on the solar site in March 2024 and being operational in November 2024.

Almost half of the nearly 90 acres in the area will be covered with solar panels.

CSC

The planning & zoning commission voted 5-0 with one member abstaining to recommend the council approve special use permits for Chicagoland Skydiving Center to host large social events and have a public recreational facility for RV parking/camping.

CSC has had those things since 2012, but the city recently found while looking into its codes that it wasn’t allowed to under its airport zoning requirements. 

“Basically when the city approved the development agreement in 2012, this zoning change should have been done then to allow for assembly,” City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said. “We were looking at putting an RV park out there and noticed that wasn't allowed. We also found assembly wasn't allowed under our zoning. This is really just trying to correct something that should've been done in 2012 to allow for assembly.”

Doug Smith of CSC said that his site hosts 5-10 events per month during the winter months and the largest have been 325-250 people. During the skydiving season, doors are opened, and those events wouldn’t fall under the assembly category. CSC worked with city staff on occupancy and safety issues for the special use permit.