Published: November 30, 2008 10:16 pm      

Sager site a topic at meeting

Committee reviews plans for senior housing

DANVILLE — The Danville Area Planning and Zoning Commission will consider plans for a proposed senior housing complex this week.

Mercy Housing Lakefront of Chicago is requesting a Planned Unit Development designation for the former Provena United Samaritans Medical Center, Sager campus, property, commonly referred to as 600 Sager St., for the purpose of a phased construction of a senior housing complex with associated services.

The complex’s name is proposed as Wisdom Crossings at Elizabeth Center.

Rabbittown Neighborhood Association member Mary Ann Pettigrew said she and others were reassured that there wouldn’t be Section 8 housing at the site.

The neighborhood group received this assurance from Mayor Scott Eisenhauer and a developer representative, Mary Ann Shanley, director of real estate development with Mercy Housing in Chicago.

But Danville Planning and Zoning Manager Chris Milliken said there will be subsidized housing through the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

Repeated telephone messages left for Shanley were not returned.

According to IHDA’s Web site, housing credit investors receive a 10-year federal income tax benefit in exchange for im-mediate cash infusions for new construction and restoration projects, under the housing credits.

Housing credit tenants pay their entire rent, made affordable through these tax incentives for investors.

Residents get no direct subsidy, but instead benefit from lower rents made possible by the program. People seeking apartments apply to private, on-site managers — not through a government agency, according to the IHDA.

Under the city’s revised zoning ordinance, the former Sager campus property is expected to change with aldermen action on Tuesday from P-1 professional office to R-2 single family residential — medium density zoning.

Milliken said there are four to five phases for the development, starting with a building to contain 60 one- and two-bedroom apartments in a two-to-three-story building where the hospital sat between Bryan Avenue and Sager Street.

Another one-story building, with eight town home units, across Sager Street also is initially planned.

Other buildings, having 40 units, would be built to the east and west of the first building, as wings.

There would be up to 280 units in six to seven different town homes and apartment buildings, Milliken said.

There also will be offices and other on-site services.

“It’s a senior living campus. It’s all encompassing,” Milliken said.

He said construction would start next year, with it being ready for occupancy in 2010.

Construction of one phase per year means construction could continue until 2013, he added.

Milliken said this is Mercy Housing Lakefront’s first venture outside of Chicago.

“That (housing) site in the middle of the neighborhood is kind of a sight for sore eyes,” Milliken said. “Housing will be a benefit to that whole neighborhood.”

Pettigrew agrees, saying “it would be big improvement — a big boost to that area.”

Milliken said a similar development that didn’t seek a Planned Unit Development classification, but had land rezoned, was Liberty Estates with its nursing home, assisted living and townhouse-type units.

The designation is a different way of going about developing the approximately eight acres at the former Sager campus site, owned by Provena, he said.

A couple lots on the north side of South Street and an alley east of Elizabeth Street are not included in the proposed devel-opment, Milliken said. The land still would be owned by Provena.

The Planned Unit Development designation provides for: a little more flexibility in designs for the uses and multiple buildings, a little more density and building mass than normally allowed in R-2 zoning, smaller setbacks, different parking regulations and incorporates more open green spaces, Milliken said.

He said a rain garden, a nice green area for the residents and which will provide some storm water detention, is proposed for the development.

In this two-stop process, Mercy Housing needs approval of the designation and a concept plan.

Then it must come back within one year for the zoning commission to approve a final development plan consisting of a site plan, Milliken said.