Fight over NorthPoint spreads far beyond Joliet

A press conference in Chicago this week was a reminder that the fight over NorthPoint isn’t over and another sign that its gone far beyond Joliet.

The Joliet City Council in December approved the annexation plan NorthPoint Development sought so it could build the Compass Global Logistics Hub.

No groundbreaking has been announced.

But since then, the village of Elwood has filed a lawsuit aimed at getting a court order that would force Joliet to go through the NorthPoint approval process for a third time,

NorthPoint, meanwhile, has been pursuing intervention by Gov. JB Pritzker that would clear the path for the developer to build a bridge over Route 53 in Elwood.

The Stop NorthPoint group this week amended its pending lawsuit against the project to add veterans groups as plaintiffs, which led to the press conference at Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago on Wednesday.

Veterans are stepping up their argument that the NorthPoint project is harmful to the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, a claim that has not stopped the project yet.

“They are putting their economic benefit above the sacred ground in which our fallen heroes, our veterans, are buried,” Allen Lynch of the Allen J. Lynch Medal of Honor Veterans Foundation said at the press conference.

The foundation has joined Veterans Assistance Commissions from Lake, DeKalb and Madison counties as plaintiffs in the Stop NorthPoint lawsuit, and Lynch called on more veterans groups throughout Illinois and the nation to get involved.

NorthPoint in response restated its position that it is the first developer in the growing logistics economy surrounding the two intermodal yards in Joliet and Elwood that is taking steps to protect the cemetery from truck traffic.

The Route 53 bridge itself, which the veterans oppose as being too close to the cemetery, would make possible a closed-loop system to reduce truck traffic on the highway that leads to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, the developer said.

“This will prohibit truck access to Route 53 and local roads, preventing trucks headed for Compass from interfering with funeral processions and cemetery visitors,” the NorthPoint statement said.

NorthPoint reiterated its plan for a truck turnaround designed to avert the problems of semitrailers wandering into the cemetery and multi-lingual signage “to help drivers safely reach their destinations.”

Opponents, meanwhile, point to projections of 5,000 trucks a day or more going through a fully built-out Compass Global Logistics Hub and continue to seek support for their cause in an appeal spreading far beyond Joliet and Elwood

The Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery provides a rallying point.

“I have heard of people who drive from Wisconsin every weekend to visit their loved ones there,” Bob Fioretti, a former Chicago alderman and attorney for the Stop NorthPoint lawsuit, said at the press conference. “I hope Gov. Pritzker stands up and says no bridge here.”