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Thursday, November 13, 2008 9:36 PM CST
Senior living complex could offer as many as 80 units
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — The proposed Villas of the Prairie independent senior living community would offer approximately 80 condominiums enclosed in a building with a dining center and other amenities.
The project would be located near the new LifeSpan Center and Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center.
Independent Living Development Group representatives discussed the concept plan Thursday during their first appearance before the Charleston and Mattoon Corridor Review Committee, which oversees development along Illinois Route 16 between the two cities.
The Peoria Heights-based developer will bring its final plan to the committee for review on Dec. 11, along with accompanying landscaping and sign plans.
The plan will ultimately go before the Charleston City Council for final approval due to the site being in that city’s jurisdiction.
Villas of the Prairie would be developed on 30 acres at the southwest corner of Loxa Road and County Road 800N. This location is just south of the new LifeSpan Center and northeast of Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center’s Professional Plaza.
“We were looking for just the right location when we started, and I believe we have found it,” said Randy Lawson, a partner in the development group. He noted the site’s proximity to health care and senior services as well as the two towns.
The concept plan for Villas of the Prairie shows nine single-story buildings that would be connected by enclosed hallways.
Lawson said the interior facing walls of the condominiums and the common hallways would be decorated with a “streetscape façade,” such as street light-style interior lighting. He said the ceilings over the hallways and other common areas would be 24 feet tall and include skylights.
“When you walk through that hallway, it’s going to be as lighted as can be,” said George Warner, a design representative for the developer.
Lawson said residents would have the option of leasing their condominiums or purchasing them, or investors could buy one or more units for leasing to residents. He said there would be a mixture of single-bedroom, 650-square-feet and two-bedroom, 925-square-feet units.
Plans call for the senior living community to include attached garages and a dining center. Other possible amenities could include a library and computer room, a beauty and barber shop, an exercise spa, massage therapy, and a “Senior Sports Pub.”
“Some amenities might work in the area and some may not,” Lawson said, adding the developer is gathering local input.
Committee members Brian Myerscough, Mark Wilson and Gary Boske each remarked that the developer presented a good concept plan. They serve on the committee along with Dave Schilling and Jeff Lahr.
“I think it fits the location, particularly the surrounding area,” Boske said.
Assistant City Planner Steve Pamperin noted the developer was scheduled to present a planned unit development concept plan Thursday evening to the Charleston zoning board.
Pamperin said the property is classified as a planned unit development because it could ultimately include a mixture of land uses, such as free-standing duplexes and a medical office building.
In other matters, the committee gave a favorable recommendation to a new approximately 12-foot-tall sign for Coles Business Park to replace the deteriorating sign there. The new sign would include lettering on a decorative gate supported by brick pillars and a brick landscaping base.
The Coles Together economic development group’s variance petition for the new sign was scheduled to go before the Charleston zoning board Thursday evening and will ultimately go before the city council for final approval.
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 348-5734.
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lefty wrote on Nov 14, 2008 12:16 AM:
Eventually this is going to cause the county to have to fund some sort of mass transit link from the center to Charleston or Mattoon, mark my words. "