McHenry County school officials want developers of the massive Terra Cotta subdivision in Prairie Grove to set aside nearly 200 houses for seniors so fewer children would crowd the school system.
Terra Cotta Realty Co. and Crown Community Development have been negotiating with Prairie Grove for a year to build 1,818 houses on 1,500 acres in the village. Prairie Grove, north of Crystal Lake, now has 500 houses.
During a negotiating session Thursday night with developers, school officials from District 46, Elementary School District 47 and High School District 155 said they wanted assurances that 10 percent of the houses would have restrictive covenants so only people 55 or older could live there.
Developers want to build 181 houses targeted–but not restricted–to empty nesters. The houses would have ground-floor master bedrooms and no playgrounds nearby, and owners would pay a fee for grounds maintenance, said Theresa Frankiewicz, a Crown vice president.
Crown will consider the request next week, Frankiewicz said, but there are “a lot of federal regulations associated with restrictive covenants.”
District 46 officials said they need more than a “maybe. It’s very important for us to have 181 homes in our district that are generating property taxes and not students,” said Supt. George Steffen.
None of the commercial development that would come with the project–and provide tax money–is in his district.
School officials expressed satisfaction with the $11.6 million in total fees they would receive from the developers, which would be divided among the three districts.
The development, proposed in December 2002, is expected to take eight years to complete. Village and school officials have been negotiating to scale back the plans and decide details.
In the last year, developers agreed to reduce the number of houses to 1,818 from 2,247.
