Neighbors meet to find out more about Joliet Catholic Academy stadium plans

Neighbors learned more about the Joliet Catholic Academy stadium plan this week, although nothing was official.

A meeting organized by neighbors Wednesday night drew more than 30 people, including three Joliet City Council members and a member of the JCA board of directors.

No one from JCA was there in an official capacity, but those who came offered some insight into what has been a controversial start for the city approval process for the project.

“Unfortunately, the whole project has gotten off on the wrong foot,” said Michael Hansen, a JCA alum and retired attorney who emphasized that he was not representing the school.

Hansen, however, said he believed it was a mistake for city staff not to initially require a traffic study for the project. That’s going to be done now and will likely mean that it will take months for the project to come back to the city for approval, Hansen said.

“These things take time,” said Hansen, a retired corporate attorney who frequently represented developers bringing projects to the city before he retired. “I don’t see this coming to the City Council until maybe by the end of the year.”

City officials have not commented on the new timetable for the JCA plan.

JCA wants to buy land formerly occupied by the Our Lady of Angels retirement home for expansion of its athletic facilities, including construction of a stadium.

But the city now is requiring that JCA get approval for a planned unit development, a process that will require review by the city Plan Commission before going to the City Council for approval.

Initially, the city only required that JCA get approval for a special use permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals without a council vote.

The matter was tabled in April after residents began to raise concerns about not getting enough information about the project and needing more time to hear about the plan.

“It would have went to that zoning board, and we would have had nothing to do with it,” said Jori Gura, one of the neighbors who organized the meeting this week.

The matter next was to go to the ZBA at its June meeting this week but was not put on the agenda.

A JCA spokesman said the city now is requiring that the school go through the planned unit development process.

Council member Jan Quillman, who along with council members Pat Mudron and Juan Moreno attended the neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, confirmed that the process now will require a planned unit development.

But the lack of clarity from City Hall along with an interest in hearing more from JCA led to the neighborhood meeting on Wednesday at the Croatian Cultural Club.

Neighbors concerned about the potential traffic and noise expected that a ZBA meeting on Thursday would be the last say on the project.

It was not until the ZBA agenda came out on June 13 without the stadium plan on it that it was evident something else was in the works.

Since then, neighbors have been trying to get more information about where the project stands and what it includes.

One woman at the Wednesday meeting said she suspected that JCA would rent out the stadium to outside users for sporting events and even rock concerts.

That comment and others prompted William Bayci, a member of the JCA board attending the meeting, to speak up.

“Rock concerts, even though I’m not authorized to say anything officially: BS,” Bayci said.

Bayci said he was taking notes on all the issues raised at the meeting and will take them to JCA officials.

“I’m going to stand up right now and say JCA wants to work with you,” Bayci said.

School representatives in an official capacity did not come to the neighborhood meeting, he said, because “the goalposts have changed” and JCA is adjusting to the new requirements from the city.

Actual construction of the stadium could be 10 years away, Bayci said. He noted that the school is in the midst of a fundraising campaign for the project.

JCA wants to have an on-campus stadium in part because it’s become increasingly difficult to get access at Memorial Stadium on West Jefferson Street, where the school has played football for decades, because of other events at the stadium.

The football team, Bayci said, held six practices at Romeoville High School last season after Daylight Saving Time changed and it got darker early because the team needed a facility with lights.

The JCA soccer team, he said, has played only about three games at Memorial Stadium in the past five years because the stadium has a busy schedule.

Bayci said JCA has been following instructions from city staff in its application for approval for the future stadium.

“We have as a school done everything we’ve been asked to do,” he said.

His comments led some residents at the meeting to suggest that JCA instead should propose a facility that would be used only for football practices and sporting events that would draw smaller crowds.

They said students at JCA already crowd neighborhood streets because there is not enough parking at the school.

“You bring a stadium, and we’re all going to have cars parking up and down our streets,” one resident said.

Neighbors said the stadium plan clashes with the residential character of the neighborhood around JCA.

“This is a residential neighborhood,” said resident Bob Pedersen, “and I don’t want to see it go down.”