Farm Owners Hope to Sell Land to Developer, Annex to Buffalo Grove

A Prairie View farm that has long been owned by the same family could soon be home to dozens more.

The Hoffmann family, which owns 20 acres at 22140 N. Prairie Road, hopes to sell the property to a developer who is proposing to construct 41 single-family homes north of Aptakisic Road between Buffalo Grove and Prairie roads. 

Buffalo Grove officials heard a preliminary proposal Monday from representatives of Pulte Home Group, which is asking the village to annex the unincorporated land. 

A conceptual plan presented to trustees features two-story, four-bedroom homes with bonus rooms and three-car garages. 

The proposed homes could range from 3,250 to 4,000 square feet, said Mark Mastrorocco, Pulte’s director of land acquisition. The company is working with the Hoffmann family to create a plan for the property that would allow for the preservation of the family’s 1.4-acre farmstead, which includes the farmhouse in which Katie Mark lives with her family. Mark, a landscape designer who helped design the conceptual plan for the farmstead, is the daughter of Bill and Mary Kay Hoffman; Bill Hoffman’s parents moved to the home in 1954, he said.

Bill Hoffmann said he and his siblings maintained ownership after their parents passed away. Now, he said, the time has come to welcome more families to the farmland. While the Hoffmann family tends its own gardens and orchards and raises chickens and ducks, the 20 acres north and west of their home is cultivated by the adjacent Didier Farms.

Buffalo Grove officials referred the proposal to the Plan Commission for review, with some expressing enthusiasm for the proposed development.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a long time coming,” Village President Jeff Braiman said. “It’s nice to see a development of this magnitude and price point to come forward.” 

Mastrorocco said while specific price ranges haven’t been set, “these will be more expensive homes.”

Trustee Mike Terson said he liked the proposal to preserve the Hoffmann homestead, which is near the northwest corner of Prairie and Aptakisic roads.

“I think it just adds so much character to the neighborhood. It’s so unique,” Terson said.

The proposal calls for the extension of the street grid in the Prairie Grove subdivision to the north. Olive Hill Drive, a half street with one-way access from Prairie Road, would be completed as a full street, under the proposal. Two streets would dead-end at the west side of the development, but could be extended later in the event that Didier Farm is one day developed, according to the proposal.

The plan also calls for the addition of .83 acres to the Buffalo Grove Park District’s Prairie Grove Park.

If plans move forward, the Hoffmann property could be sold to the developer within six to eight months, said Eve Lee, a real estate development consultant who is working with the family.