Elwood files objection to NorthPoint plan inWill County

Developer initially proposed business park be annexed into the village

With two trustees absent, the ElwoodVillage Board voted unanimously Wednesday night to file a legal objection to NorthPoint Development’s attempt to get approv- al for itswarehouse project inWill County.

The site is within 1 1⁄ miles of

2 the village limits, and Mayor Doug Jenco said four trustees decided “we should showour displeasure.”

“We don’t need more trucks or cars,” he said.

The objection forces the Will County Board to approve the developmentwith a supermajority — or 20 of its 26 members.

NorthPoint initially proposed its Compass Business Park, a 2,000acre warehouse and distribution site, to be annexed into Elwood, but Jenco canceled the public hearingonthe proposal this spring, saying therewerenotenoughvotes to support it.

“There was no sense in going through any more headaches than we had already had,” Jenco said, citing the raucous plan commission meetings on the issue that drew hundreds of people.

RejectedbyElwood, NorthPoint took its application for rezoning to theWill County Land Use Department this summer, seeking to rezone 670 acres in unincorporated JacksonTownship.

Will County Board Speaker Jim Moustis, R-Frankfort Township, previously recommended that the Kansas City-based developer withdraw its application until it addresses “serious concerns” raised by residents.

Thebusiness park is expected to generate 7,400 vehicles per day, including more than 2,000 trucks.

Moustis said impacts from projects of this size are “so great that it is detrimental to economic development.”

County officials said such developments should be reviewed on a regional basis, and theywant to get local towns involved to discuss howNorthPointwould affect all of them.

Jenco said NorthPoint has not yet withdrawnits application in his village, but it will expire later this month.

He urged County Board members to drive on Route 53 and visit the nearby MidewinNationalTallgrass Prairie and Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.