Hearing Set: Stop NorthPoint Files Temporary Restraining Order Against City Of Joliet
The Stop NorthPoint group filed an emergency motion on Tuesday, seeking to compel the City of Joliet to produce the traffic studies before any hearings on NorthPoint’s annexation request can proceed. A court date is set for December 9th at 9am in front of Will County Judge Anderson.
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The Stop NorthPoint group is filing an emergency motion today seeking to compel the City of Joliet to produce the traffic studies before any hearings on NorthPoint’s annexation request can proceed. John Kieken, co-founder of Stop NorthPoint LLC says their Freedom of Information request continues to be denied and wants to know what they’re hiding. Today’s motion is the second being filed.
On December 3rd, attorneys hired by Kieken, filed a complaint in the Will County courthouse against the City of Joliet seeking injunctive and declaratory relief for denial of his Illinois Freedom of Information Act request for traffic impact studies regarding the NorthPoint project.
The motions come after revelations uncovered in recent Stop NorthPoint FOIA requests that raise serious questions about the impact of the massive proposed project. While no traffic studies have been provided by Joliet, the Stop NorthPoint group did receive a letter from IDOT which discussed project.
In an email obtained by Stop NorthPoint, IDOT District 1 Engineer Anthony Quigley has stated emphatically that Route 53 simply cannot support a 20-million-square-foot development — and this is BEFORE NorthPoint announced the expansion of their project by nearly 1,000 acres last October. Now that the massive project is approaching 4,000 acres, it is estimated that it would contain 40 million square feet of warehouse space, which adds twice the traffic that IDOT already said this area cannot handle. Quigley stated, “… The intersection at Lorenzo Road is getting over burdened with trucks. The interchange at I80 is even worse. It will be at least 5 years before the interchange at I80 is completed”
The temporary restraining order is to compel Joliet to produce documents related to any traffic studies ahead of the December 21st City Council hearing and to stay the City Council hearings.
