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Developer, Elk Grove Township homeowners negotiate as annexation deal looms

A developer has three weeks left to convince remaining homeowners in a shrinking residential subdivision to sell, in hopes of annexing those properties into Elk Grove Village for future industrial development.

Some of those homeowners want to stay put, but say they'd leave for the right price.

"Don't let those guys come and divide our community and our neighborhood and put us in a box," said Mohammad Hussein, in a speech last week to village board members.

The board will consider a pre-annexation agreement Sept. 10 to bring in about 10 acres of the Roppolo residential subdivision in unincorporated Elk Grove Township. That's after nearly two dozen homeowners agreed to offers from a developer who wants to build a one-story, 188,400-square-foot trucking warehouse there.

But some 30 other homes would remain and be in the shadow of the proposed industrial building at Landmeier Road and Roppolo Avenue if they don't agree to sell to Logistics Property Co. The company says several homeowners are still considering the latest offers.

At a meeting last week, village officials seemed inclined to approve the 10-acre annexation, but were open to the idea of the whole area coming in.

Prices for the first 21 properties under contract on the south side of the neighborhood ranged from $239,500, for vacant land, to $750,000, according to land title documents.

The developer has verbal agreements for another two houses.

Aaron Martell, the firm's Midwest region executive vice president, said offers for the rest of the neighborhood matched those parameters.

Hussein, one of the neighbors, said he wants a fair market price for his home, plus moving costs.

Martell, during the public meeting last Tuesday, said Hussein was asking for $1.1 million.

Mayor Craig Johnson told Martell to be "fair" with pricing, basing it off industrial land value and not residential.

The homes are surrounded on all sides by industrial buildings incorporated within Elk Grove Village.

But the mayor also said homeowners should be "realistic."

"This is not God coming down with a pot of gold that's gonna throw money all around," he said. "You are located on an island in the sea of the largest business park in North America. It's not like you live on 50 acres in McHenry County."

Were the developer to acquire the remaining homes west of Roppolo Avenue and north of Lee Lane, that could open up the prospect for another two phases of industrial buildings.

The residential subdivision has long been sought after by developers - village officials say they get at least three prospective land buyers a year - but they've never been able to accumulate enough individual properties to form one large project, until now.

Logistics Property Co. is seeking annexation into the village of the first 10 acres, along with an industrial rezoning and a variation for building heights up to 42 feet. The plan commission Aug. 5 endorsed the plan, while the village board Aug. 13 directed the village attorney to prepare the pre-annexation document.

A public hearing on the pre-annexation is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Sept. 10, after which the board would vote on it during a 7 p.m. meeting.

Nearly two dozen willing to sell homes to make way for warehouse near Elk Grove

A sketch shows the one-story, 188,400-square-foot light industrial building proposed for the southern portion of the Roppolo subdivision, which is currently a residential neighborhood in unincorporated Elk Grove Township. Courtesy of Logistics Property Co.
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