Joliet City Council rejects proposed pot farm

The Joliet City Council on Tuesday voted down a proposed cannabis facility, refusing the developer’s request to table a vote until June.

The vote reflected frustration with previous construction activity on the site without permits and strong opposition from residents in the neighboring Sugar Creek subdivision.

Several residents showed up at Tuesday’s meeting to urge the council to turn down, not table, the proposed facility at Manhattan Road and Alessio Drive.

“At this point, this is far beyond a marijuana cultivation facility. This is about the land itself,” area resident Megan Cooper told the council.

Cooper over the last two months made presentations to the council about construction activity on the site without building permits, leading to an airing of issues about the site at a Monday workshop meeting of the council.

Council member Jan Quillman on Monday questioned why the city had not taken action regarding construction equipment stored on the site after a stop-work order was issued last month.

“Everything we ask them to do, they just snub their nose at us,” Quillman said.

“That is basically correct, yes,” replied City Manager James Capparelli.

Council members on Tuesday urged city staff to pursue legal action against the Alessios for construction without permits and any continued use of the property that violates city ordinances.

The 7-1 council vote against the cannabis facility followed negative votes last month by the Zoning Board of Appeals and Plan Commission.

Quillman and Council member Cesar Guerrero also had voiced concerns about possible oil seepage at the site, which the Alessio and Sons construction company uses to store equipment.

Attorney Carla Alessio Policandriotes, who is representing the Alessios, said Tuesday that she does not know of any oil seepage on the site.

Alessio Policandriotes also said the family was complying with city instructions that the site be left status quo until the cannabis proposal was resolved.

“Nothing has been done at all that is contrary to the instruction we have received from Joliet staff,” she said.

Alessio Policandriotes was not at the council meeting and said she expected the matter to be tabled.

The work done on the site occurred before the Alessios applied to the city for rezoning and the special use permit needed for the cannabis facility, she said. Trees were removed and grinding was added to the ground to provide a stable surface for storage of construction equipment.

“The zoning there allows us to store our own equipment on that site. We have done that for decades,” Alessio Policandriotes said.

The area proposed for the cannabis facility is partly zoned industrial and partly zoned residential. The Alessios are seeking full industrial zoning for the cannabis operation.

Alessio Policandriotes said the only violation notice from the city she is aware of concerned a fence put up around the site.

The stop-work order from the city, however, also applied to unapproved unapproved equipment and material stored on the site

Planning Director Jim Torri told the council on Monday that issues including storage of construction equipment on residentially zoned land came up a year ago.

“The back half of that property has the R2 [residential] zoning,” Torri said. “They should not be parking the industrial equipment on there. That was part of the violations that we called them out on about a year ago.”