Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

Not long after he was elected Joliet mayor in 2023, Terry D’Arcy began looking at an annexation agreement signed by the previous administration for the NorthPoint development of more than 30 million square feet of warehouse space along Illinois 53 near Elwood.

“I had never seen a deal this lopsided,” D’Arcy said.

For one thing, Joliet officials had agreed to take over the maintenance of a new bridge over Illinois 53 and the roads associated with NorthPoint’s proposed “closed loop” plan.

“That would have cost Joliet $100 million in the first 20 years alone,” he said.

Meanwhile, CenterPoint, which owns the land to the west of Illinois 53, was battling NorthPoint, which wanted to use some of the former’s access roads for its closed loop.

Fighting the annexation agreement in court would have cost the city many millions, D’Arcy said. He and city officials instead looked at the Memorandum of Understanding agreed to by the city, NorthPoint, CenterPoint, Will County and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

D’Arcy approached representatives of NorthPoint and CenterPoint 18 months ago to begin a dialogue that would hopefully settle the disputes … and get a better deal for Joliet.

“There was a lot of tension in the room in the beginning,” D’Arcy said. “And few people knew how much work went into this. It was litigation, so we couldn’t say anything public.”

That went for City Council members as well, according to D’Arcy, who added, “I just gave them little spoonfuls at a time (in closed session).

“There were several iterations of the agreement, and each one got better for Joliet,” he said.

City Council members saw the final draft several days before a special City Council meeting scheduled for June 20. For those who hadn’t been involved in the process, the agenda seemed out of the blue:

“Ordinance Authorizing Execution of a “Settlement and Mutual Releases Agreement” between the City of Joliet, Houbolt Road Extension JV, LLC, Centerpoint Properties Trust, Centerpoint Joliet Terminal Railroad, LLC, East Gate-Logistics Park Chicago, LLC, New Wave Farms, LLC, and Northpoint Development LLC Relating to the Construction of the Northpoint Development in Joliet, Illinois, Will County Case No. 2022 MR 138, and Other Related Matters

“Ordinance Authorizing Execution of a First Amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding for the Houbolt Road Project between the Illinois Department of Transportation, the County of Will, the City of Joliet, and Houbolt Road Extension JV, LLC as Assignee of Centerpoint Properties Trust”

There was no further information given until the meeting, which led to much speculation, including some false hopes by opponents of the NorthPoint development somehow going away after eight years of battles in court.

Opponents were not surprised, but upset, when the city released the 57-page draft agreement at the special meeting. NorthPoint wasn’t going away, but its plan was cut back a bit, and they would be taking over maintenance of the bridge and the roads for its closed loop plan.

At the meeting, several wondered how all this came about, and how the council could even vote on the agreement, which the public hadn’t seen.

D’Arcy said at the meeting that the process was not made public because of litigation. And the council, which would vote unanimously on both items, was made aware several days before.

Following the meeting, the city issued this statement:

“Upon implementation of the settlement, NorthPoint’s emergency access to Route 53 for truck traffic will end. Trucks entering and exiting the NorthPoint Development will be required to utilize the Closed Loop Truck Network, which is specifically designed to prevent trucks from using local roads in Joliet.

“To address resident’s concerns, a permanent cul-de-sac will be constructed on Millsdale Road east of the Union Pacific Railroad preventing cars and trucks from heading eastbound towards Route 53 in areas where there are residential communities.

“As part of the settlement, the City will no longer be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the roads and bridges within the NorthPoint Closed Loop Truck Network. This saves the City hundreds of millions of dollars in the long term. CenterPoint and NorthPoint have agreed to work with the City to propose traffic improvements to mitigate existing traffic impacts on City roads.”

D’Arcy told Farmers Weekly Review later that only cars for NorthPoint warehouse employees would be able to use Illinois 53.

He added that the company hired by NorthPoint for comprehensive traffic studies at designated phases of their development would need to be approved by the city, “they won’t be a rubber stamp.”

Opponents, including Delilah LeGrett, Jackson Township Assessor and member of Just Say No to NorthPoint, were not impressed.

“We’ve seen for the last eight years that NorthPoint’s signature means nothing,” she said. “They have continued to do what they want, when they want, agreement or not.

“We do not feel this agreement will be any different. They built warehouses west of 53, knowing that they were not allowed access to 53. They cried to the state to get temporary access, and it was eventually granted. Now they promise to not occupy anything east of 53 without the closed loop.

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. We will continue to fight this project. It is still beyond damaging to our community.”

Officials from CenterPoint Properties Trust were pleased with the settlement, especially given that it clarified the scope of NorthPoint’s plan, which they added, “re-establishes the Houbolt Road Bridge as the long-term solution to reduce truck traffic on local roads.”

NorthPoint CEO Nathaniel Hagedorn acknowledged the settlement reduces their original plan from up to 40 million square feet of industrial distribution space to 25 million square feet of space where trucks would use the closed loop traffic plan.

“All trucks would stay off route 53 under this agreement and would funnel trucks back towards the intermodal district,” he said.

“We are working with IDOT, Illinois Commerce Commission and City of Joliet to build out a series of bridges to complete the approval process to build the bridges which are necessary to maintain the closed loop network and keep trucks off Route 53.”

He thanked D’Arcy for organizing the settlement.

“This is a very thoughtful solution to allow for the continued growth of the community’s tax base, to bring jobs to Joliet and its residents and to thoughtfully address traffic concerns to keep trucks off of local roads and IL-53.”

Relieved the weight of the negotiations is off, D’Arcy said Joliet residents can look forward to not paying millions toward the NorthPoint plan (the company is paying all the legal fees accrued) and not seeing even more trucks on Illinois 53.

“We’ve been able to get what we needed,” he said. “It’s the best deal for the city.”

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.