Carpentersville holds public hearing on 150-acre Huntley-Randall TIF; joint review board recommended project

Carpentersville trustees held a public hearing Sept. 2 on a proposed tax increment financing district covering roughly 150 acres between Randall Road and Huntley Road that a consultant says could generate more than $100 million in tax increment to fund infrastructure and redevelopment.

The hearing presented findings from Johnson Research Group. “We found that of the seven factors that are an option for vacant area, chronic flooding is present to a meaningful degree and reasonably distributed throughout the area,” consultant Anne Maroney said, and later summarized: “All told, the area qualifies as an improved conservation area and a vacant blighted area.”

The study area runs from the village boundary with Algonquin on the north to the Huntley–Bridal intersection on the south, with Erica Lane on the west and Westwood Avenue on the east, Johnson Research Group said. The consultant described a large vacant portion of about 132 acres and a small improved portion that includes a multi-building parcel identified as owned by Gage Farms; the farmhouse there was said to date to 1921.

Maroney and the village said the consultant and the village’s engineering firm HR Green documented chronic standing water and poor drainage affecting roughly 30 acres of the vacant portion—about 44 percent of that vacant area. For the improved portion, the consultant said more than half of buildings meet the age threshold for conservation-area eligibility and that five conservation factors were present, including deterioration, inadequate utilities, poor circulation with truck activity, lack of community planning and lagging equalized assessed value (EAV).

Johnson Research Group presented a baseline EAV of “just over $772,000” for the combined parcels and said development scenarios could push the collective EAV above $206 million. The consultant stated the village could yield “over a 100,000,000” in increment and showed a draft project budget that included a $60 million line for public works and improvements; presenters emphasized those line items were priorities, not final allocations.

Village Manager Stewart told trustees the village followed required publication and notification steps and presented the plan to the joint review board on July 31; that board “unanimously recommended that the project move forward,” Stewart said. Anne Maroney said the hearing completes a public-notice stage and that the next step would be action by the village board, currently scheduled for Sept. 16.

There were no public commenters during the hearing. Trustee Garcia moved to close the public hearing; Trustee Abbott seconded and the board voted unanimously to close the hearing.

The redevelopment plan presented to trustees described a flexible mixed-use vision: commercial along Randall Road, possible light industrial behind it, and a range of housing types, with TIF funds targeted primarily to extend infrastructure and make development feasible. Presenters said HR Green and county data sources informed findings but that budget line items remain movable and subject to further review.

No ordinance or resolution to create the TIF was adopted at the Sept. 2 meeting; the public hearing record will be part of materials considered when the board takes up formal adoption at its next scheduled meeting.

Why it matters: If approved, the district would allow the village to capture future increases in EAV within the district to pay for streets, utilities and other public improvements intended to remove impediments to redevelopment.