Plans to blast at Joliet quarry halted

The owner of an East Side quarry has temporarily stopped a plan to begin blasting.

A proposal to allow blasting at the quarry in the area of Richards Street and Sandall Place was pulled from next week’s Joliet City Council agenda, an indication that VM Land may have given up the plan that faced community opposition.

“They have not indicated whether they would try it again, but they would have to start from square one,” said District 5 council member Suzanna Ibarra, who represents the area where the quarry is located.

The proposal, which would have required a change in the annexation agreement that put the quarry inside Joliet city limits, had already been tabled five times since by the City Council since first being placed on the agenda on Oct. 18, typically at the request of VM land.

It last had been tabled until the council meeting on Tuesday. But the city announced Thursday that the blasting proposal has been withdrawn from the agenda by VM Land..

Withdrawing the proposal from the agenda is a bigger step, city Planning Director Jim Torri said.

“They would have to start entirely over with this if they chose to,” Torri said.

The quarry provides stone for PT Ferro, a major contractor that is located in Joliet and and handles a large share of the city’s road construction business.

However, the blasting plan faced opposition from community activists who have been trying to slow down the pace of industrial development in the southeast section of the city. Residents living in the vicinity of the quarry became increasingly concerned as questions were raised about the effects of blasting.

A second meeting with neighbors to explain the quarry plan drew an estimated 125 people on June 27.

Boise Walker is with the East Side Neighborhood Council, which opposed the blasting plan. She said she was extremely excited to hear that it had been pulled from the council agenda, but then added, “There is an opportunity for them to resurrect it again.”

In the meantime, Walker said, the council plans to follow up on other issues that neighbors have recently raised over operations at the quarry, which now uses hydraulic rock crushing.

“There is dust and debris that is causing concern in the neighborhood,” she said.

An attorney for VM land did not return a call requesting comment about future plans.

Ibarra called the decision to pull the plan for now “a win for the residents of District 5, especially in that area in the south and southeast side that did not want it.”