NorthPoint Is Coming: Joliet Council Votes 6-2

JOLIET, IL — For the second time this year, the Joliet City Council approved plans for the NorthPoint Development to come to Joliet. Wednesday's vote went 6-2. Councilman Patrick Mudron was one of the key proponents of the Compass Business Park that will be built along Joliet's southern border near Route 53. In addition to Mudron, Jan Quillman, Larry Hug, Sherri Reardon, Terry Morris and newly appointed Herb Lande voted for NorthPoint.

Only Bettye Gavin and Mike Turk voted against it.

NorthPoint Joliet has also been endorsed by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Bobby Rush, Congresswoman Robin Kelly and Congressman Adam Kinzinger.

Tuesday night's Joliet City Council public hearing on the North Point annexation proposal resumed at 4 p.m. Wednesday. After five more hours of public comments from mostly Manhattan, Elwood and Jackson Township residents imploring Joliet to reject North Point, the City Council vote occurred shortly after 9:10 p.m.

Roughly 90 to 100 people over the past two days spoke at the public hearing, urging the Joliet Council to reject NorthPoint for a host of reasons.

At the time of the vote, Mudron reminded his colleagues that neighboring villages such as Channahon and Shorewood have erected several more warehouses in recent years along Interstate 55 and those actions are bringing more and more truck traffic to the Joliet area.

In August, Patch reported that Channahon's new Love's Travel Stop at I-55 and Bluff Road was nearing its completion. The Love's was supposed to open around Thanksgiving, but the work has fallen slightly behind schedule. Secondly, Amazon's new 1 million square foot fulfillment center in Channahon along I-55 near the Route 6 interchange opened in late August, bringing 1,000 new permanent jobs to the area.

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Mudron believes NorthPoint's closed loop trucking system will be great for the Joliet area and help alleviate traffic congestion caused by the semitrailers currently using Joliet's roads.

"The mayor had mentioned the new lifts that Union Pacific had put in," Mudron said. Senior Vice President of NorthPoint Tom George "mentioned the containers for BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) had set a record in the last two months. The containers are coming. Somebody has to control them, where they're going to go. They're gonna leave the Midwest here. I feel we, the city of Joliet, have the best ability to contain these. As we all know since that vote (in April) there has been more warehouses built by Shorewood on (Interstate) 55. I guess part of it's Shorewood and part of it is Channahon.

"All of those trucks have to get out and they're getting out on (Route) 53 now. We've been on 53 at Route 80. The intersection is a major problem. With this, we didn't start this. It was great that the land got given up, but this was some combination between CenterPoint (Intermodal Center), BNSF and the village of Elwood."

Mudron continued his comments by saying, "We are the center, the crossroads of America, and I think we're the ones that need to step up and control this, and I feel partnering with NorthPoint is the way to go and I vote yes."

Late Wednesday night, one of NorthPoint's top executives issued a statement to Joliet Patch.

"We want to thank Joliet city staff, council members and the mayor for taking the time to consider the facts and underlying causes of the issues raised through the proceeding,” said Patrick Robinson, Vice President of NorthPoint. “Compass Global Logistics Hub reflects more than four years of listening to the community and incorporating feedback and input from residents and stakeholders. Saying ‘No’ without offering any solutions does nothing to move the community forward. Compass represents a real and immediate solution that makes roads safer, puts Illinoisans back to work and establishes the state as the Midwest leader of the new economy.”

Back on March 10, Joliet Patch, The Joliet Herald-News and Joliet's WJOL news radio station toured NorthPoint's Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton, Kansas.

After the tour, WJOL afternoon radio personality Kevin Kollins told everyone in the group that he was shocked by the lack of traffic he saw inside NorthPoint's Logistics Park Kansas City.

"There's not an overflow of trucks, trucks backed up, trucks driving off the streets," NorthPoint founder and CEO Nathaniel Hagedorn told Joliet reporters that same afternoon.

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