Joliet council to vote again on CenterPoint plan

The Joliet City Council votes Tuesday again on a CenterPoint Properties plan, one that it rejected in 2022 amid litigation between the city and CenterPoint that continues today.

CenterPoint wants the city to annex 10 acres as part of a larger plan that includes two warehouses, nearly 1 million square feet each, and a trucking facility to be built near Brandon and Schweitzer roads.

The City Council at a workshop session on Monday did not discuss the plan openly but met in closed session for a half-hour to discuss litigation when the matter came up on its agenda.

Mayor Terry D’Arcy when asked after the meeting whether he could comment on what the council may do on Tuesday simply said, ‘No.”

Hearings on the litigation between the city and CenterPoint are scheduled this week.

CenterPoint, a partner in the joint venture group that built the Houbolt Road bridge, contends that agreements with the city were violated when Joliet approved rival developer NorthPoint Development’s plan for a separate industrial park to be built just to the east of the CenterPoint Intermodal Center.

The NorthPoint project depends on the use of roads that run through the CenterPoint Intermodal Center, which CenterPoint contends violates its agreements with the city.

A pretrial hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The council meets at 6:30 p.m.

The council makeup has changed since it rejected the CenterPoint proposal in 2022, including the election of Mayor Terry D’Arcy. The council in place since the April 2023 election has had a mixed reaction to warehouse and trucking proposals. But it has not stopped new projects from moving forward.

In January, the council approved a NorthPoint plan for warehouse development and a separate CenterPoint plan for a trucking terminal at the same meeting, although it had previously tabled votes on both projects.