With Maplewood School bus barn plan rejected, Cary requests housing proposals for land instead

The village of Cary is looking for developers to transform the Maplewood property after a years-long battle over the land with School District 26.

The school district agreed to sell its Maplewood property to the village for $5.5 million and develop a new transportation site at another location last month. The intergovernmental agreement spells out that the village will buy the property – home of the long-shuttered Maplewood School – for $5.5 million upfront, and the district will use the revenue to buy a new property for its long-planned transportation center. The agreement came after the village rejected District 26′s attempts to rezone Maplewood to allow for a new transportation center.

The village issued a public proposal request last week with a deadline of Nov. 19. The 15.6-acre property, located at 422 W. Krenz Ave., is in the downtown tax increment financing district that was created last year. Currently zoned single-home residential, it houses the former school, six baseball fields and District 26′s transportation center.

“The development of this site will be an important part of the continuing improvement and expansion of the village’s downtown,” the village stated in the request document.

The Maplewood property is identified as a “priority development opportunity site,” according to the 2021 downtown strategic plan. Village officials hope to create a “transit-supportive” mixed-use development of housing, open space and connections to the Metra station and downtown. Officials are open to multifamily buildings, attached townhomes or “small lot” single-family homes, according to the document.

The village aims to present concept plans from shortlisted developers to the board at a meeting in January and start negotiations with the chosen developer by Jan. 14, according to village documents.

The village has had hopes of spurring development on the site for years, but has never been successful with finding a developer. Previous developers have proposed the creation of multifamily townhomes or apartments, but all ultimately stepped away.

Pushback on whatever is proposed may be in the future as residents and board members have expressed concerns over the potential density of a new development at previous board meetings.

“The property’s size and location allow for increased density and the introduction of a mix of residential unit types, though care will need to be taken in planning the site to ensure a balance between real estate market expectations and concerns over potential neighborhood impacts,” village officials said in the request document.

Development will also permanently affect Cary-Grove Youth Baseball and Softball, a community organization that has been using Maplewood as its primary location for over 50 years. The village asks developers to consider creating a park or open spaces for public use in their plans, according to village documents.

Now that the village owns the property, officials are moving forward with the Maplewood Access Road Extension project that aims to improve mobility in downtown Cary. The new road would be an extension of Industrial Drive, running from Cary Algonquin Road to High Road, parallel with Route 14 and south of the railroad tracks.

The project is in phase one of three which consists of research and design planning. The second phase, expected to start next year, will prepare contractors and land purchases and the third phase will be construction. An idea of how much the project will cost will be estimated after phase one is complete, Village Administrator Erik Morimoto said.