WILL COUNTY: PROJECTS REQUIRE REGIONAL VIEW
Officials concerned about impact of large developments
Large-scale developments — such as NorthPoint’s proposed Compass Business Park — need to be viewed from a regional perspective, Will County officials said Thursday.
The impacts from such projects “are so great that it is detrimental to economic development,” County Board Speaker Jim Moustis said at the Executive Committee meeting.
Earlier, Moustis called on NorthPoint Development to withdraw its county application to rezone 670 acres in unincorporated Jackson Township, where it plans to build several warehouses, which it said would generate 7,400 vehicles per day, including more than 2,000 trucks.
Moustis said Thursday that “they need to slow down.”
“Are we overbuilding Will County? Do we need to get our infrastructure in place first?” asked board member Tom Weigel, R-New Lenox.
Following an outpouring of opposition from residents, NorthPoint’s plan was rejected this spring by the village of Elwood, where it wanted to build its logistics park on 850 acres. It still owns an additional 180 acres in Elwood that is already zoned for industrial use, plus more than 700 agricultural acres near Manhattan, in Jackson Township.
John Greuling, president and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development, said local municipal zoning laws are not equipped to address projects of that size.
Villages tend not to look beyond their own boundaries and there is nothing to force them to collaborate with neighboring communities, or the county, officials said.
They are approving projects without considering the regional impacts, Greuling said.
When Elwood officials considered the NorthPoint plan, it excluded its neighbor Manhattan in discussions with the
developer, prompting Manhattan to sue Elwood for violating a boundary agreement.
In a written response to NorthPoint’s application, the Will County land use department told the developer it must contact Elwood, Manhattan and Jackson Township officials about its rezoning request. It also must submit a traffic impact plan and details for its well and septic systems on its site plan. If that and other issues are not addressed within 60 days, the application will be withdrawn, the letter said.
Moustis and Greuling agreed that Will County and the Center for Economic Development should set an example by working together, taking a regional view of this and future projects, and getting local towns involved to discuss how it will impact all of them.
“Many of us are proeconomic development, but not at any cost. If it makes sense, we’re for it,” Moustis said. “But if it is going to impact a lot of people negatively and future economic development, we need to take a look at it — look at the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Greuling said: “It’s not that we’re saying no to development. It is saying certain development belongs in certain places.” He said municipalities have to be “engaged” in this.
Greuling said when the South Suburban Airport was first proposed in eastern Will County, all the towns surrounding it got together to plan for it “in a spirit of cooperation.”
The villages of Mokena, Orland Park and Tinley Park are jointly marketing the Interstate 80 corridor, he said.
While his job is to recruit new businesses to the county, Greuling said he did not recruit NorthPoint.
Logistics is not the only type of business coming to the county, he said, adding that he is seeing a lot of food, energy and medical companies locating here.
This summer, Greuling’s office also launched the I-80 Coalition with local business officials to raise money for a lobbying effort to explore ways to improve the interstate by 2023.