Will County Gazette

JOLIET – Activists and residents said they'll go to court to oppose a NorthPoint Development plan even after the Joliet City Council gave it preliminary approval.

The Joliet City Council voted 6-3 to support the annexation of roughly 1,300 acres for the future Compass Business Park proposed by NorthPoint Development Co. of Kansas City.

The developer – at a cost of $1.2 billion – would build 16.8 million square feet of building space for warehouses, manufacturing plants and other light industrial uses along Manhattan Road. According to the Chicago Tribune, NorthPoint projects it will bring 1,600 construction jobs and 4,500 permanent jobs to the Joliet area.

Opponents of the project said it would create a traffic nightmare along Interstate 55 and Interstate 80 with an estimated 53,000 trips per day and 16,000 trucks traveling over dilapidated roads and bridges.

Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk voted for the project along with council members Pat Mudron, Jan Quillman, Terry Morris, Sherri Reardon and Larry Hug. In opposition were Don Dickinson, Mike Turk and Bettye Gavin. After the vote, O’Dekirk touted the project’s fiscal impact on the community.

"The revenues that get raised off this, is significant,” he said in a Patch.com report. “We're talking over the life of it, hundreds of millions of dollars that are going to get pumped back into our community, and not just Joliet, into the community."

Opponents of the plan, including the groups Just Say No to NorthPoint and Warehouse Workers for Justice, held a virtual news conference to describe how they plan opposition to the project. They said they are looking to continue litigation to challenge the City Council's action.

An unsuccessful attempt had been made to have a temporary restraining order issued to stop a public hearing held to discuss the project. According to a report in the Herald-News, opponents maintained that holding such a hearing during the public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in violation of the state's stay-at-home directives would deny residents the ability to voice their opinions.

Matt Topic, an attorney representing the opponents of the project, recalled a Will County judge’s ruling in which he called the hearing legal but "shady." Topic said he would ask a court to declare the City Council vote null and void.

"We're also taking a very close look at how the meeting was held, the times it was held, whether everyone who signed up to comment was given an opportunity to do so," Topic said in the Herald-News report.

Topic also argued that the City Council violated rules of the Open Meetings Act because the hearing was not "convenient and open." He added that holding a meeting with remote “virtual” public comments over the web excluded about 15% of Joliet residents whom he estimated do not have web access, and residents without cable television who couldn't watch the City Council session at home.

The Herald-News report said 250 people managed to present their comments over the phone during four days of public hearings last week.

In addition to the mayor, opponents focused some of their criticism on Councilman Morris by accusing him of previously supporting a moratorium on warehouse development to relieve traffic congestion in his district.

“We feel really betrayed," said Roberto Clack, associate director of the Warehouse Workers for Justice.

Morris defended his yes vote on Northpoint development, citing the potential economic benefits and jobs he said would result for the city. Morris added he had considered voting against NorthPoint, but learned more about its potential for the city.

"I learned all the facts of what NorthPoint was going to do and what it was going to bring to this city," he said.