Vote on Joliet Catholic Academy stadium delayed

Joliet Catholic Academy and its neighbors have two more months to talk about plans for an on-campus stadium.

The Joliet Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday tabled a vote on the stadium plan until its June 19 meeting.

The zoning board vote on a special use permit is the only city approval JCA needs to move ahead with the project.

JCA officials and city staff agreed to push back the decision date during a week in which neighborhood concerns about the plan began to surface.

“I think this needs to be looked at better, and we needed to be more informed about what’s going on there,” local resident Jori Gura said to the zoning board Thursday.

Gora was among four residents who spoke at the meeting on the JCA plan, one of whom expressed support for the project.

“This isn’t just about improving the school. It’s about enhancing the entire community,” Timothy Broderick said.

Two other neighbors voiced concerns about traffic and potential flooding from construction of a JCA stadium.

The stadium would hold up to 7,000 people and provide seating for 5,500.

It would be the first on-campus stadium for the legendary Joliet Catholic Academy football program, which for decades has played at Memorial Stadium.

The proposed stadium, described as a multi-sports athletic facility, is the main piece of a campus expansion that also includes tennis courts, new pickleball courts and other features.

JCA plans to buy the adjacent land occupied by the now closed Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home, which is under demolition, to expand its campus. JCA athletic facilities already border the Our Lady of Angels site.

School officials since at least July 2023 have publicly confirmed their interest in building a stadium on the site. The stadium has been part of JCA’s long-term strategic plans since at least 2018.

But the stadium plan was never formalized publicly until the zoning board agenda came out last week.

The urgency of the one-week notice was heightened by the fact that the zoning board vote would have the final say on the matter under city code that allows the board to make decisions on special use permits required for school athletic facilities.

Joliet officials at City Council meetings, where the matter was discussed on Monday and Tuesday, appeared unsure of the approval process and whether there was more time for neighbors to learn more about the JCA plan.

By late Wednesday, city staff and JCA decided it would be best to table the matter to provide more time for the school to present its plans to neighbors.

JCA spokesman Ryan Quigley said the school has presented the stadium plan at four events since October, including a community meeting for which notices were sent to more than 300 addresses.

Only eight residents showed up for the meeting, however. Gura said she talked to more than 30 neighbors, and only a few said they saw the notice.

Joliet Community Development Director Dustin Anderson said city staff met with Quigley late Wednesday to discuss delaying the vote.

“We asked, do you think that this is something that might be a good idea?” Anderson said. “At the end of our conversation, Ryan agreed to it.”