Joliet council will vote on truck terminal, parking tax

The Joliet City Council is set to vote Tuesday on an alternative tax for truck terminal and parking facilities.

The city has been working on the alternative tax proposal since October 2019 to generate more revenue from terminals and parking facilities that pay little in property taxes but draw trucks onto local roads

“I think this is going to be a fantastic revenue generator for us and help us again recover the costs that are associated with the various roadway construction problems we have here in helping our infrastructure support our growth,” City Manager James Capparelli told the council Monday at its workshop meeting.

The PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program will apply to new truck terminals and truck parking facilities, as well as others that have been approved while the program was under development.

No one objected to the PILOT program on Monday, and there was no discussion among council members. The program has been discussed several times at council committee meetings since 2019 and received unanimous support from the Land Use and Legislative Committee in February.

It is aimed at elevating the amount tax revenue generated from such operations closer to what the city would receive if the same sites were developed as warehouses.

“It’s a way for us to capture some revenue off of these various trucking companies that come through here,” Capparelli said.

A city analysis determined warehouses in Joliet pay an average of $2,345 per acre in property taxes, which compared to truck terminals at $1,089 per acre and truck parking lots at $637 per acre.

The PILOT program would start this year, charging terminals $40.40 per truck stall on site and truick parking lots $63.34 per stall for the annual tax. The rate would go up 2% each year.

Terminals and parking facilities produce little property tax revenue because there there are small buildings on the sites. City officials have argued that more tax revenue should come from such operations to compensate for the wear and tear on roads from the trucks that use them.

In February, the Zoning Board of Appeals gave preliminary approval for a truck terminal at Route 6 and Houbolt Road. The proposal for a 52-acre site includes 600 truck trailer parking stalls, 109 truck docks, 40 tractor parking stalls, and 313 standard parking stalls for employees. Construction would include a 79,500-square-foot building with truck bays and a 5,900-square-foot maintenance building.