CRYSTAL LAKE – As McHenry County College officials prepare to build up the school’s Crystal Lake campus, they’ve been dogged by questions about the enrollment projections used to justify the proposed expansion.

The college’s facilities master plan, which could cost $640 million over the next 40 years and $278.5 million in the next decade, assumes student enrollment will steadily increase by 3 percent each year.

The projections didn’t come from a professional demographic study. Instead, they came from a committee of MCC officials working with Wight and Co., a Darien-based design firm hired by the college to draft its facilities master plan.