‘Whole new city’: Joliet unveils plans for reimagined downtown

More than 100 people came to an open house this week on plans for redevelopment in downtown Joliet, showing at least that the public is interested in seeing change.

The plans presented to the public included construction of multi-story apartment buildings to bring residents downtown and moving City Hall to make room for riverfront construction.

Altogether, there are 73 action items for consideration in the Joliet Downtown Equitable Transit Oriented Development Plan, which eyes redevelopment opportunities within a half-mile radius of the Gateway Center that houses the city’s train and bus stations.

Making any of it happen may be a challenge. But making plans for changing the downtown landscape sparked the interest of most of the people who attended the open house at the Gateway train station on Wednesday.

Remy Parham, who owns commercial property within a block of the train station said “just having plan which will create change” is important.

“A lot of people think things fall out of the sky,” Parham said. “But to create change you have to have a plan.”

The city plan rates the 73 action items based on priority, timeline estimates and partnerships needed to make them happen.

“I think people are excited, and they care. They see a positive trajectory downtown.”

—  Jayne Bernhard, Joliet city planner

Creating a new city job for someone to oversee public art and events in the city is rated as a short-term goal.

Changing city zoning regulations to allow for taller buildings and smaller lot sizes are seen as challenges that may take more time.

But it’s a start, said Aaron Mikottis, president of the Joliet Regional Landlords Association.

“I’m excited about their awareness that they have an issue in zoning,” Mikottis said.

Mikottis said current zoning rules create too many obstacles to rehabilitating buildings in the city’s older neighborhoods for multi-family housing.

Like most of those who attended the open house, Mikottis was encouraged by what he saw in the city plan.

John Sheridan, president of the Cunninghan Neighborhood Council, said he was encouraged, too.

But Sheridan cautioned that many people are wary about what the Downtown Equitable Transit Oriented Development Plan may bring to the downtown area.

Sheridan said he has heard concerns that it will lead to low-income housing stock that will create more challenges for the downtown area.

Beyond that, he said, people in the neighborhoods are beginning to think too much focus is being put on the downtown area.

“Why are we concentrating on downtown when the rest of the city has issues?” Sheridan said, repeating a question he has heard from residents.

Others at the meeting said the city has waited too long to focus on redevelopment in the neighborhoods around downtown.

“It’s a great thing that they are building more housing downtown,” said Eddie Reyes of Joliet. “It needs improvement.”

Reyes acknowledged that it could be “years before it is completed” but said the plan if implemented would create “a whole new city of Joliet.”

Possibilities posed in the study include:

• Moving City Hall to a new location to open up the space along the Des Plaines River for development

• Redeveloping the BMO Bank property across Jefferson Street from Union Station into a five-story building that will have residences on the top floors and commercial space on the ground floor

• Building four-story and six-story buildings on the former Lyons Lumber Yard property outside the Gateway Center for residential and commercial uses

All that and more is conceptual.

Tim Brophy, a former Joliet City Council member and currently the Will County treasurer, said the plan could pave the way for development that now faces challenges because it clashes with current zoning regulations and restrictions on housing density.

“It’s setting the groundwork,” Brophy said. “If the City Council is ever going to put something up that has any kind of density they need something like this to lean on.”

If nothing else, the turnout for the open house was encouraging, said city Planner Jayne Bernhard.

“I think people are excited, and they care,” Bernhard said. “They see a positive trajectory downtown.”