McHenry eyes 180 age-targeted rental townhouses off Route 120 as part of larger annexation

An annexation agreement set for a vote Monday by the McHenry City Council would bring more than 120 acres into city limits, including 27 acres for new housing.

Developer Redwood USA wants to build just shy of 180 rental townhouse units on the property, which sits on the southeast corner of Chapel Hill Road and Route 120 on McHenry’s far northeast side.

The townhouses are all one-story, two-bedrooms units and are age-targeted.

“Our target is empty nesters,” said Paul DeKruiff of Redwood USA.

The size of the overall annexation “is a little misleading,” DeKruiff said. “The seller is annexing in all 121 acres for additional development, commercial and residential, down the road.”

The lots at the corner of Route 120 and Chapel Hill Road “are saved for commercial purposes” in the future, said Ross Polerecky, McHenry’s community development director. “We are annexing and subdividing the entire parcel” allowing the property owner to advertise the surrounding acreage for sale, he added.

This is the eighth rental project for Redwood in the northern Illinois or Chicago region, DeKruiff said. The builder had plans for a development in Johnsburg, but pulled out of that development earlier this year.

DeKruiff noted that Redwood has built homes in nine states “and has never sold a single unit that we have ever built,” as the company builds rental homes.

“We do have ownership of the community. Redwood owns and maintains them, and maintains them well,” DeKruiff said.

As part of the development and annexation agreements, the developer is required to extend and “upsize city water and sanitary sewer currently located on the southwest corner” of the site, according to Polerecky’s report to the council.

The hope, Polerecky said, is that the Redwood development would spur additional interest in open land adjacent to the site. Land just west of the Redwood site is owned by McHenry High School District 156, earmarked for a future high school site.

“Annexation would also provide contiguity with the ... District 156 parcel to the west, which could potentially annex into the city in the future, providing access to one of the few planned full access intersections on Chapel Hill Road,” Polerecky’s report says.

The McHenry City Council meets at 7 p.m. Monday in the City Council chambers.