A. BL Local Business District
The purpose of the BL Local Business District is to provide locations for small-scale service and retail uses that primarily serve the convenience needs of St. Charles neighborhoods. The BL District permits a mix of uses, but care must be taken to ensure that adequate access, parking and screening is provided so as not to negatively impact adjoining residential neighborhoods.
B. BC Community Business District
The purpose of the BC Community Business District is to accommodate mid-size retail and service development along Strategic Regional Arterial corridors such as Route 64 and Randall Road. Uses in the BC District have the potential to generate significant automobile traffic, and therefore care must be taken to properly design access and parking facilities. Since this district is located along the roads that serve as gateways into St. Charles, quality building architecture, landscaping and other site improvements are necessary to ensure this type of development enhances St. Charles' image.
C. BR Regional Business District
The purpose of the BR Regional Business District is to provide locations along Strategic Regional Arterial corridors for shopping centers and business uses that draw patrons from St. Charles, surrounding communities and the broader region. The BR District consists primarily of large-scale development that has the potential to generate significant automobile traffic. It should be designed in a coordinated manner with an interconnected street network that is consistent with the City's Comprehensive Plan. Uncoordinated, piecemeal development of small parcels that do not fit into a larger context are discouraged in the BR District.
Compatible land uses, access, traffic circulation, stormwater management and natural features, all should be integrated into an overall development plan. Because this district is primarily at high-visibility locations, quality building architecture, landscaping and other site improvements are required to ensure superior aesthetic and functional quality.
D. CBD-1 Central Business District
The purpose of the CBD-1 Central Business District is to provide for the maintenance and orderly growth of a mixed use, pedestrian friendly, compact district of retail, service, office, and higher density residential uses in the central area of the City. Development within the CBD-1 District is intended to promote the upgrade and full utilization of existing older structures as well as appropriate redevelopment.
E. CBD-2 Mixed Use Business District
The purpose of the CBD-2 Mixed Use District is to provide for a properly scaled mixed-use transition between single-family residential neighborhoods and the retail core of the CBD-1 Central Business District. The CBD-2 District permits a mix of retail, service, office, and medium-density residential uses within buildings that are of a reduced height and scale than that permitted in the CBD-1 District. However, development in this district is also intended to retain a pedestrian-oriented character, similar to that of the CBD-1 District.
F. Downtown Overlay District
The purpose of the Downtown Overlay District is to preserve the economic vitality and pedestrian character of downtown's shopping core within the CBD-1 and CBD-2 Districts by encouraging the continuous flow of pedestrian movement. This is accomplished by limiting uses on the first floor that typically generate relatively little pedestrian activity or are otherwise incompatible with a pedestrian oriented shopping area. Only those uses listed in Table 17.14-1 shall be permitted on the street level or first floors of buildings/structures within the Downtown Overlay District.
Buildings within the Downtown Overlay District are restricted with respect to the uses permitted on the first floor level, as provided in Table 17.14-1. Notwithstanding these restrictions, the first floor level of a building within the Downtown Overlay District may be occupied for any use permitted within the underlying zoning district (i.e., CBD-1 or CBD-2), upon certification by the Director of Community Development that its physical characteristics make it unsuitable for occupancy for any of the first floor uses permitted within the Downtown Overlay District, and that altering such physical characteristics would either 1) be incompatible with the purpose of Chapter 17.32 (Historic Preservation) of this Title, or 2) impose an undue financial burden on the property owner. Such physical characteristics may include but shall not be limited to: Inappropriate placement, size or orientation of doors or windows, a floor level which is not of a similar elevation to the adjoining sidewalk, lack of window area for display of goods, lack of street frontage, and interior space which is not adaptable to the permitted uses because of structural components or limitations on accessibility. For purposes of this section, an undue financial burden shall mean where the estimated cost of altering the building exceeds 25% of the current appraised value of the property.
