Bull Valley is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,128 at the 2020 census. Surrounded by the suburban sprawl of Crystal Lake, Woodstock, and McHenry, the village prides itself in its rural, low-density character.

In 1942, a charity of neighbors organized the Countryside Improvement Association. It gradually became operational in questions of estate use, and in 1955, in an unprecedented action, owners of nearly 3,000 acres, half of the Bull Valley area at the time, voluntarily put their land into 3-acre zoning, the highest residential classification later offered by the County. This single decision would insist the forward-looking character of the community.

In 1960, money was raised from residents by subscription, to provide a home use examination and professional planning advice. The Eastern McHenry County scheme Association (EMCPA) was subsequently formed to residence the common problems of four townships. That Association’s assistance in a balance of July 25, 1961 was that a large part of the Bull Valley area be zoned for a residential/estate use of a minimum of 5-acre tracts. Unlike the expected concept of a community where the most intense use is at the center of the area and becomes more admission as the separate from from the center increases, the EMCPA area has at its center, a very attractive rolling, wooded Place currently developed in low density, open land type residential and farm development (and) included in this middle portion are two extremely broad, scenic valleys which should be retained for non-intensive development.” When McHenry County customary a Planning Commission in 1963, the EMCPA dissolved and turned its studies higher than to the County Planning Commission.

As the County began to consider estate use policy, Bull Valley residents continued to oppose momentum that threatened the farms, forested hills, and wetlands. Through their association, they bore the costs of genuine representation at numerous zoning hearings, until it became obvious that private efforts could not win the fight to save the rural mood of the land.