National homebuilder Pulte is moving in on a long-vacant industrial site northwest of downtown St. Charles, floating a plan for a 105-unit neighborhood that would replace the former Applied Composites property with single-family houses and townhomes.
What Pulte Is Bringing To The Table
The concept, dubbed Ninth Street Commons, targets roughly 27 to 28 acres and sketches out 93 single-family lots plus 12 townhome units. New interior streets would connect into North 5th and North 6th, along with extensions of North 7th and North 9th streets.
According to the City of St. Charles, the project is still at the concept stage. The public can comb through the submitted plans in the posted project documents, but nothing is locked in yet.
Plan Commission Takes First Look
Pulte representatives walked the St. Charles Plan Commission through the concept in late April, stressing the site’s quirks and its long, stop-and-start redevelopment history.
"Pulte's the contract purchaser for the, approximately, 27 acres," attorney Nick Peppers told commissioners, according to the Plan Commission transcript. Commissioners, in turn, zeroed in on how the developer plans to handle buffering to nearby homes, pedestrian connections, and the look and feel of the new streets.
Homes, Townhomes And Who They Are For
The plan pairs detached single-family homes with a smaller townhome product pitched to midmarket buyers. As reported by Tri-Cities Central, townhomes are projected to start around $530,000, while single-family houses are expected to run into the high $500,000s and above, depending on lot size and selected options.
Why Building Here Is Not Cheap
Developers told commissioners that this is not a simple scrape-and-build job. The property carries significant redevelopment costs tied to electrical infrastructure on the site, environmental cleanup, and grading work, which in turn helped shape both the density and the mix of housing types.
The Plan Commission transcript notes that relocating electrical lines and handling remediation account for a big chunk of the project budget.
City Help, Fees And The Affordable-Housing Question
City documents show Pulte is asking St. Charles to help pay to move existing electrical distribution lines, with a city memo estimating that cost at under $3 million. On the affordable-housing front, the builder has signaled it would rather write a check than build the city’s required inclusionary units on site.
As reported by the Chicago Tribune, the company says including affordable units in this particular project would create a multi-million-dollar financial gap, so it prefers a fee-in-lieu payment instead.
Neighbors Sound Off
At the concept review, nearby residents made it clear they have concerns. Neighbors told the commission they worry about losing mature trees, seeing their views walled in, and taking on more traffic along already narrow local streets. Several also pointed to potential school-capacity strains if dozens of new families move in at once.
Local coverage summarized those comments and noted that the former Applied Composites site has sat vacant since the company shut down in the mid-2000s, with earlier redevelopment plans approved but never built. Residents and commissioners pressed Pulte on tree preservation and landscape buffering, according to Tri-Cities Central.
What Happens Next
For now, Ninth Street Commons is only an early concept, not a binding proposal. If Pulte decides to keep going, the company will have to file formal zoning and planned unit development applications, return to the Plan Commission for public hearings, and ultimately seek City Council approval.
The developer told officials it is under contract and expects to close on the land early next year. The Chicago Tribune notes that St. Charles has tried to spur redevelopment at this site before, including a 2013 proposal that depended on substantial public reimbursements. Any fresh request for city subsidies on this high-profile property is likely to be closely watched as the project moves forward.
