The City of Crystal Lake has been trying to put the brakes on residential growth, largely due to the adverse impact on its crowded school system.
But Wednesday night, the Crystal Lake Plan Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of a new subdivision, in part because of the developer’s plan to donate 10 acres of land to the Crystal Lake Elementary District 47.
Crystal Lake-based Opfer & Stuckmann Construction Inc. petitioned the commission to approve plans for 98 single-family homes and a school site near Miller and Swanson Roads on the southern tip of Crystal Lake.
Because of the tremendous building boom in that area in the last few years, the site is especially valuable to the school district.
“You couldn’t ask for a better location,” said plan commission member Philip Morehead. “That’s where (school children) are all coming from.”
Developers in Crystal Lake are required to pay an impact fee of $4,750 per home to the school district. In this case, approximately half of that amount will be rebated to Opfer and Stuckmann by the elementary school district. But one of the developers, Tim Opfer, noted that the school district will come out ahead because of the high cost of buying land in the area for a school.
“The land is worth about triple what we are getting from the school district,” he said.
The request will go before the City Council on March 17 for final approval.
