The future of the old Joliet Correctional Center property is at stake as the city negotiates a new lease and a state senator urges sale of 149 acres of the site.

The site is best known for the Old Joliet Prison, the name given to the former prison by the Joliet Area Historical Museum. The museum manages the prison for tours and events in partnership with the city of Joliet, which leases the property from the state.

But it was the 149 acres of undeveloped state land that was the center of attention at a community meeting this week about the future of the site.

“There’s really no oversight,” Alma Montero, a neighbor of the land who organized the meeting held Wednesday night, said of the 149 acres. “We have no idea what they’re doing.”

Montero and other neighbors have complained for years about dumping and other questionable activity on the 149 acres.

State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, was at the meeting and urged the sale of the 149 acres to the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

Ventura has introduced legislation (Senate Bill 1698) to transfer ownership of the 149 acres from the state to the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

Ventura said the Forest Preserve District would be better stewards of the land than the city, pointing to dumping and other problems on the site.

“I do not believe they (the city of Joliet) will hold people accountable,” Ventura said. “They have not done it in the past.”

“You don’t see dumping on Forest Preserve property,” she added.

The city of Joliet has leased the state property since December 2017, focusing its attention on the prison. The prison was closed in 2002 and was subject to trespassers, vandalism and even arson fires before the city gained access to the property.

Joliet is in the process of negotiating its third lease for the site, which includes the prison on Collins Street, the women’s prison on the east side of Collins Street, and the 149 acres also located east of Collins Street.

The city access to the prison property has been generally successful, stemming vandalism, opening the historic prison for tours, and attracting a private company that runs a haunted house during the Halloween season at the former women’s prison.

The one sore point has been the undeveloped 149 acres

Councilman Cesar Cardenas at the community meeting said he saw promise in the plan for a disc golf course.

“I’m OK with the disc golf course,” Cardenas said.

The 149 acres also has been eyed for park land, sports fields and other uses that likely would require a change in ownership.

“This property has been sitting vacant and dark for 60 years,” Cardenas said. “Do we want to just leave it.”

Ventura said potential uses for the 149 acres, including development of a disc golf course, could continue under Forest Preserve District ownership.

“The state wants to get rid of the property,” Ventura said. “How they get rid of the property has not been clarified.”

City Attorney Todd Lenzie would say little about their current negotiations on the lease for the prison property other than that they expected to have an agreement soon.

“These discussions have been productive, and the city anticipates that a lease extension will be finalized in the near future,” Lenzie said.