Opposition mounts as NorthPoint seeks Route 53 access in Joliet

Another state legislator has voiced opposition to NorthPoint Development access to Route 53 as opposition grows to the developer’s attempt to obtain a special permit.

NorthPoint opponents went to the Joliet City Council on Tuesday to object to the city’s support for the permit that will be decided by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, on Tuesday issued a statement against Route 53 access, which puts both state legislators in the district against the NorthPoint permit.

“I echo my colleagues’ concerns regarding the developer’s lack of tangible solutions to deal with the increased truck traffic that would directly impact residents’ daily life,” Ventura said in the statement. “I encourage IDOT to deny temporary access and enforce the initial developer’s plans.”

Ventura’s statement follows a letter sent to IDOT by state Rep. Larry Walsh Jr., D-Elwood, urging the agency to deny the NorthPoint permit.

The attempt to get access to Route 53 on a temporary basis has touched off another nerve in the ongoing controversy over NorthPoint and the number of trucks on local roads and highways.

The city of Joliet has sent a letter to IDOT in support of the permit, which brought NorthPoint opponents to the council meeting Tuesday.

They pointed to past promises by the developer and city officials that the NorthPoint plan would keep trucks off Route 53.

“We told you that this was going to happen,” Joliet resident Marge Cepon told the council. “Look where we are.”

Cepon and others pointed to the plan for a “closed-loop” road network that in theory would keep trucks doing business at NorthPoint off Route 53 and local roads.

“It isn’t a closed loop anymore,” Jackson Township Supervisor Matt Robbins told the council. “Now you are asking for access to [Route] 53.”

NorthPoint owns land on both sides of Route 53. The developer has said it will build a bridge over Route 53 to get access to the intermodal yards in Joliet and Elwood from land west of the highway.

In the meantime, NorthPoint began building in 2022 east of Route 53 with plans to use Millsdale Road to get into the CenterPoint Intermodal Center road network that provides access to the intermodal yards and pathways to Interstates 80 and 55.

CenterPoint, however, has repeatedly objected to the NorthPoint plan, suing both the developer and the city. CenterPoint contends that the NorthPoint plan to use Millsdale and other roads inside the CenterPoint Intermodal Center violates previous CenterPoint agreements with the city.

A judge in March issued a temporary order barring NorthPoint from using Millsdale Road, effectively blocking the use of 1.7 million square feet of warehouse space that the developer said it has rented to Target and a distributor of electric batteries.

Robbins, however, noted that neither Target nor the battery distributor have occupied the warehouses, contending that there is no emergency requiring access to Route 53.

“This is nothing more than real estate speculation,” Robbins said of the NorthPoint development to date. “They took a chance and missed. Why do you have to pick up the pieces for them?”

City officials did not respond to Cepon and two Jackson Township officials who objected to the Joliet alliance with NorthPoint in its attempt to get access to Route 53.