Lockport Approves $2M Chevron Property Purchase Agreement

LOCKPORT, IL — The Lockport City Council has approved a purchase and sale agreement for 181 acres from the Chevron Environmental Management Company for $2 million. The property is located at 301 W. Second St., and was the former site of Texaco refinery.

According to council documents, Texaco ceased operations on the land in 1981, and Chevron has spent nearly $500 million to clean the site.

The city previously acquired 13 acres of land from Chevron as part of a property exchange agreement in 2017, council documents state.

After clean-up of the site, Chevron has marketed the property as a business park, and in November 2020, Chevron put the 181 acres up for auction. According to council of the whole minutes from Feb. 17, a logistics company has expressed interest in the property, and nearly purchased it when the property was put up for auction.

According to council documents, with the city's purchase of the property, the city can have greater control over the property and ensure development is more consistent with Lockport's downtown area.

City Administrator Ben Benson said the plan for the land needs to be revisited.

"We want [the plan] to be a community decision," Benson said. "We can decide to have it be open lands, decide to have some manufacturing in there, there's a lot of things we can do."

There are still active monitoring water wells on the site, even after clean-up of contaminated soil. Chevron is seeking final No Further Action letters from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regarding the groundwater.

Chevron would still be liable for any off-site contamination or groundwater contamination, even once the property is sold, City Attorney Sonni Williams said.

"If something happens, IEPA still has the ability to go after Chevron," Williams said.

Council documents state that the city has the cash reserves to purchase the property without any additional financing or bonds, and it could use TIF funds for certain eligible expenses, like environmental review fees or outside attorney fees.

The city council approved the purchase agreement, with Alderwoman Catherine Perretta as the sole 'no' vote. Alderman Mark Lobes was absent.

"We've already had 13 acres that we've had for 4 years, and we haven't done anything with that, and now we're going to purchase more land and we don't really have a 10-year plan written out," Perretta said before voting no on the project.

"My concern is I don't want to see this land sitting for 10 more years undeveloped," she said.

Mayor Steve Streit said in a phone call with Patch that various projects have approached Chevron in previous years, including a distribution center and a trucking depot.

Chevron wasn't interested in selling the property in smaller chunks, but wanted to sell it as a whole. The city has the flexibility to develop the property the way they want to, Streit said.

"I'd rather see the city control it, and we can develop it in a way that is beneficial to the city," he said.

Closing on the property will take place by March 31.