The NorthPoint Development plan for a massive industrial park will go to the Joliet Plan Commission for a vote in February, a city official said Thursday.
A favorable vote from the commission could send the NorthPoint plan to the City Council for a final decision at its March 17 meeting, said Kendall Jackson, director of community development.
Jackson said city officials confirmed the schedule after a review Thursday of the NorthPoint proposal, which does not amount to an annexation but would be an agreement obligating the city to bring the 1,300 acres into the city at a later date.
“What their intent is, is to put all the land, all the zoning, and everything else that they would negotiate into the agreement and then come back with a formal annexation and plat,” Jackson said.
NorthPoint is still completing acquisition on some of the 1,300 acres that it wants to annex into Joliet, he said.
“My understanding is that they have contracts on everything,” Jackson said. “Once they become owners, they would come back for the formal annexation.”
Jackson said a time limit yet to be determined will be set on the agreement, allowing it to expire if NorthPoint does not return before the deadline. Otherwise, he said, the agreement would commit the city to annexation and zoning sought by NorthPoint.
NorthPoint is reviving the Compass Business Park it had planned for annexation into Elwood before that village turned it down in 2018.
The plan totaled 2,200 acres but has grown to more than 2,300 acres. The developer has added 103 acres that Joliet agreed to rezone in November. While the rezoning was proposed as a stand-alone development at the time, NorthPoint now says it will add the 103 acres to other land it has under control to create the industrial park.
NorthPoint also has approached Manhattan for potential annexation of more than 700 acres in unincorporated Will County that cannot be annexed into Joliet but would be added to the Compass Business Park.