Carpentersville annexes nearly 150 acres as it moves forward with plans for new TIF district

Chicago Tribune

17-07-2025

Carpentersville has annexed 147.9 acres along the Randall and Huntley roads with an eye towards creating a new Tax Increment Financing district to spur development.
Agreements for the most recent two annexations were approved this week by the Carpentersville Village Board. Other parcels have already been brought into the village with earlier votes, officials said.
'We cannot create a TIF district outside of our municipal jurisdiction so a prerequisite of even discussing the economic incentives the TIF district will offer was conditional on the properties annexing into the village,' Village Manager Brad Stewart said.
Having control of the property and being able to offer financial inducements through a TIF means 'expanding our opportunities to bring in meaningful development,' Stewart said.
The first annexation approved at Tuesday's meeting was of a 9.94-acre parcel south of the Grandview Drive and Randall Road intersection. The property lies east of Randall Road.
Property owner RTW Properties has no immediate plans for development but wants to be part the TIF district Carpentersville is putting together, Stewart said. When the owner is ready to develop, they will be seeking commercial zoning, which would benefit the village by expanding, strengthening and diversifying the village's property tax base, he said.
RTW's property is already within Carpentersville's planning jurisdiction because of a boundary agreement the village has with Algonquin, Stewart said. Any future development on the site would still require village approval, he said.
The second property consists of six parcels for a total of 84.73 acres. A single-family home and storage barns are located on three acres and the rest is undeveloped. A majority of the land is between Randall Road to the east and Huntley Road to the west.
Owner L&H Farm LTD Partnership doesn't development plans yet but would seek mixed zoning when it does, Stewart said. As is the case with the other property, Carpentersville would need to sign off on future use.
'Some of the property owners and the village have already had some discussions with some interested developers,' Stewart said. 'This all really ties together very nicely.'
That said, there are also some development challenges: wetlands, infrastructure deficiencies and flooding plains make some of the land difficult to build on, he said. That's where a TIF district creating economic incentives will help, Stewart said.
In January, the village hired Johnson Research Group to do a TIF Eligibility Study and Redevelopment Plan for 138 acres of land along Randall and Huntley roads.
'The study strongly supports that a TIF district is appropriate for this area,' Stewart said.
One criteria is if an area has water drainage issues or a significant amount of wetlands, he said. Mitigating those issues requires a huge investment and can't be resolved simply by pouring concrete over the land, he said.
'Quite the opposite. Any developer is responsible not only for maintaining some open spaces and the natural environment but also for ensuring stormwater drainage is managed with no (negative) effect on other properties in our community,' Stewart said.
The village's discussion of a creating a new TIF district has encouraged some property owners to voluntarily come into the village, he said. Last year, Carpentersville annexed about 150 acres in the area off Huntley Road.
If approved, a Randall/Huntley Road TIF would be the village's fourth district. It already has TIFs covering property in Old Town, Meadowdale and the area surrounding the former Spring Hill Mall.
On Tuesday, trustees moved forward with plans to conduct a Sept. 2 public hearing for the proposed district. It will be held during a regular village board meeting at which time more details are to be released.
Stewart said there's already one developer who is considering a parcel on Randall Road, north of the former Dominick's site, for a 300-unit luxury townhome subdivision once the TIF is in place.
'We have continued to talk with that particular developer, who remains highly interested in proceeding,' Stewart said. The economic incentives tied to the TIF district would have to be in place before they can proceed, he said.
All told, the village has expanded to add 300 new acres to its borders through annexation in the last 18 months, Stewart said.
'It's very exciting to be in that sort of growth mode because that growth is what gives us the opportunity to have meaningful development,' he said.