In the next few weeks, crews will begin realigning the entrance and exit lanes at McHenry School District 15’s Valley View School on Route 120, Wonder Lake officials said.

That work, set to finish before classes start in the fall, is in advance of a traffic light set for the intersection at Stonewater Parkway and the school’s entrance. The Illinois Department of Transportation gave conditional approval for the new traffic signal in early spring, and its $680,000 cost will be paid by builder D.R. Horton, Wonder Lake Village President Dan Dycus said.

Wonder Lake Village Manager William Beith added the village hopes “to have it go live before the end of the year.”

The news that the intersection is getting a traffic light also comes as D.R. Horton prepares for its next phase of construction in the massive Stonewater subdivision. The developers also recently gave park land over to the village, conveying Center Core Park – in the center of Stonewater – to the village.

“It has a mile and a half of trails and mature trees,” Dycus said, adding that the village’s public works department has already started doing maintenance on the site. “We are super lucky to have it.”

Wonder Lake entered its first development and annexation agreement with developer NRB Land for the 1,400 acres in February 2009. NRB Land recently sold the remainder of the annexed but unbuilt property to River Ridge Farms, Inc., a Michigan corporation.

The change in ownership should not change any of the agreements with the village, Dycus said.

The first 60 building permits for Phase 1 came in June 2021, Beith said. He was in his first weeks as village manager.

Five years later, all 717 homes in that first phase are set for completion by the end of the year. Work has begun – such as leveling for home construction and installing water, sewer and roads – on Phase 2. Plans for that section call for another 850 homes just north of those already built and occupied, Dycus said.

Once completed, Stonewater is set for 3,700 homes. While that development once gave the Wonder Lake the title of the fastest-growing town in Illinois, it now sits in sixth place, Dycus said.

The village’s estimated population is now 5,920, Beith said.

A Horton representative told the village that the developer expects to build 125 to 150 homes per year going forward, Beith said. Depending on the market and any future changes, total buildout for Stonewater, which stretches from Route 120 to McCullom Lake Road, could be another 13 years.

One change that has been made is where a future school could sit.

Original plans for the development gave Harrison School District 36 a building site towards the center of the property. At the district’s request, that land donation has been moved to a site adjacent to the existing school on McCullom Lake Road, Dycus said.