NorthPoint: Giant Project Coming To Joliet

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet City Council was notified on Friday that the Kansas City-based NorthPoint developers plan to move ahead with a $1.2 billion business park development in Joliet. City Hall officials were notified that NorthPoint filed a pre-annexation agreement with the city, the first step in the process toward gaining approval.

The NorthPoint project would encompass about 1,625 acres. The proposed development would be in the general vicinity of Hoff Road and east of Route 53, city officials said. It would be built in the general area of of Joliet and Elwood's previous boundary agreement,which has since expired.

"I have not seen the annexation agreement but my guess is that (city manager) Steve Jones will update the City Council at the meeting Tuesday night because there have not been any discussions," Mayor Bob O'Dekirk said.

In November, O'Dekirk broke a 4-4 council vote on a smaller scale NorthPoint development project that is planned near Breen Road on a 103-acre parcel.

At that November meeting, several people who live outside the city of Joliet boundaries implored the city council to reject the smaller scale NorthPoint project, but that did not happen.

Joliet Patch reported at the time that several people in the audience were outraged by the final vote and someone in the crowd screamed "You're going to have blood on your hands!"

One of the Joliet Police officers assigned to the City Council meeting to provide security got up from his seat moments later and he went to the other side of the council chambers to make sure there weren't any violent confrontations between the audience and Joliet politicians.

Do you think the 1,625-acre project is good for Joliet? If so, why? On the other hand, if you oppose NorthPoint, why is that?

Feel free to make your comments known at the end of this article. The NorthPointe project will likely be one of the hottest topics of 2020 at Joliet's City Hall.