Joliet OKs CenterPoint warehouse project

The Joliet City Council without saying why on Monday approved a CenterPoint Properties warehouse and trucking project it has opposed for nearly two years.

The vote was made at a special meeting called at the start of a week in which the city and CenterPoint are to go to trial over the council’s repeated refusal to approve the project that was approved Monday.

The council immediately went into closed session after the vote, putting another cloak of secrecy over one of the city’s most controversial issues — warehouse development and truck traffic on the south end of Joliet.

CenterPoint is the developer of the CenterPoint Intermodal Center, a sprawling development that includes intermodal yards in Joliet and Elwood and one that has given the area the designation of the largest inland port in the nation because of the volume of cargo containers arriving by train.

The project approved by the council on Monday involves about 150 acres in the area of Brandon and Schweitzer roads. The council earlier this month put CenterPoint on hold when it tabled a vote on the project.

Most of the land is within the CenterPoint Intermodal Center, but the developer needed rezoning along with the annexation of 10 acres for a project that will include two 900,000-square-foot warehouses and a trucking terminal.

The council on Monday voted 8-0 for the plan with one member, Suzanna Ibarra, absent and immediately went into closed session, suggesting it would discuss the matter behind closed doors.

Mayor Terry D’Arcy and City Manager Beth Beatty refused to discuss the vote when asked about it after as they headed into the closed-door session.

The pending lawsuit over the Brandon Road project is one of several matters pending in court involving the city, CenterPoint, rival developer NorthPoint Development, and the joint venture partnership, which includes CenterPoint, that built the Houbolt Road toll bridge.