City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Motorcycles as well as promoting motorcycle safety, education, awareness, and respect of the citizens of our city and state and the motorcycles of Illinois have contributed extensive volunteerism and money to national community charitable organizations. And whereas during the month of May, all roadway users should unite in the safe sharing of roadways within the city of Joliet and throughout the great state of Illinois. Now therefore, I, Terry Darcy, mayor of Joliet, Illinois, on behalf of Joliet City Council in the great state of Illinois, in recognition of thirty nine years of abate of Illinois, recognize May as motorcycle awareness month as dated 05/05/2026 and signed by mayor Terry Darcy.

Thank

you. We appreciate you and a mate too. Thank you.

Next, we have a proclamation lives.

To We're

Alright. We have Mary and Scott here. The father cannot make it, but thank you for coming. This is a reference to the hundred and thirty fifth anniversary of Saint Joe's. I mean, we've all most of us have been through have been at Saint Joe's many times for various reasons. Saint Joe's Park. You can see the photos there. Dave Sloan from Accents Lighting did a incredible job. It's absolutely stunning. So you guys did a great job.

So here's the proclamation. Proclamation. Whereas immigrants from Slovenia began to settle in the Joliet area during the eighteen eighties to find work, raise a family, and establish a Catholic church that would safeguard their culture and religious patrimony. And whereas on 05/12/1891, reverend Cisteric celebrated the first mass of the newly formed Saint Joe's Sylvanian Catholic Parish of Joliet. And whereas by nineteen o five, Saint Joe's Saint Joseph's Parish built their current church located on the South End of Sylvanian Row, at that time, North of Jackson Street, and was the first all steel and stone structure in the city of Joliet.

And whereas by 10/03/1895, four years after the first church was enacted, Saint Joseph Parish built and opened Saint Joseph Catholic School. And whereas in 1938, father Matthias j Utella became the fourth pastor and began to develop Saint Joe's Saint Joseph's Park. And whereas on June 30 or 06/20/1940, Babe Ruth played an exhibition game celebrating the opening of Saint Joseph's Park on Theodore Street and Raynor Avenue Avenue. And whereas a celebration mass for the hundred and thirty fifth anniversary will be held on May 17, which is two weeks from now, 2026. 05/17/2026 with at or with a 10:30 mass followed by dinner at Saint Joe Saint Joe's Park at noon.

Now, therefore, I, Terry Darcy, mayor of the city of Joliet, Illinois, on behalf of the Joliet City Council, do hereby recognize Saint Joseph's Parish and congratulate them on their hundred and thirty fifth anniversary signed today by our mayor, Terry Darcy, 05/05/2026. Congratulations. Thank you.

On behalf of father John and the personers of Saint

to do say that the lighting was father John Hornichek's, our pastor's, And it is beautiful. And I hope we're around for another one hundred and thirty five years lighting up the North Side of downtown and the city center lighting up the South Side because it's beautiful. Beautiful.

Mayor? Yeah. I'd like to just comment before they leave too. I'll tell you what. Notre Dame De Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral has nothing over our Saint Joe's. It's just as beautiful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as written with the following change? Remove council memo number two fifty one dash 26, ordinance adding chapter 21, article 11 offenses on public property to be voted on at the 05/19/2026 council meeting. So moved.

Thank you.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve. Councilman Cardenas? Aye. Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman Navarro? Aye. Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin? Aye. Councilman Quillman? Aye. Councilman Reardon? Aye. Mayor Darcy?

Aye.

Motion carried. Next is citizens to be heard on agenda items. I do have a few people signed up. We'll start with Dan Wexler.

Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Dan Wexler,

and I'm here on

behalf of the Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting representing operating engineers local one fifty and our signatory contractors. The amended Rock Run Crossing Agreement is not simply a vote to advance a development, but in fact is a stronger protection package for the city of Joliet. Approval of this resolution gives the city stronger leverage, enhanced accountability, and greater safeguards. The amended agreement puts Joliet in a stronger position. Incentives are earned only through performance.

The developer carries more of the risk, shifting much of the risk, especially financial responsibilities, away from the city onto the developer. The economic upside is also significant. This project has the potential to strengthen Joliet's regional draw, expand the tax base, and support permanent employment in retail, hospitality, entertainment, maintenance, and operations. Those are jobs and revenues that can continue long after the construction phase is complete. But the value of this project depends on more than what gets built.

It depends on how it gets built. That is why the project labor agreement component is so important. A project labor agreement brings stability, skilled labor, apprenticeship opportunities, and consistent labor standards to a project of this size and complexity. It ensures the work is performed safely, efficiently, and responsibly. For Rock Run Crossing, a project labor agreement is not a secondary consideration. It is a core safeguard for delivering the project safely, efficiently, and responsibly. For those reasons, we respectfully urge a yes vote, and I thank you for your time.

Marzal Richardson?

Hey, counsel. How are guys doing? Marzal Richardson from Richardson's. I have to say Friday night was amazing. Thank you guys all for showing up. Couple things about the Square. The social part of it, the social district of it, I think it'd be a great thing to add to downtown. It sets us apart. We have a lot of unique events going on downtown. And I also think they would enhance people coming in.

They can't do it in other neighborhoods or cities. You can come down here to do it. With that being said, being right outside or inside City Square, Richardson's is the first thing you see. And we commit to keep keeping that good light in Joliet since you see us first. But I do see some things that could help.

That drive path, I see, which was great. We saw a lot of kids playing, but we also saw cars coming in from both ways. So to keep this pilot program going, starting and going, and hopefully turning it into something permanent, I would think some kind of I know there's signage, but it's not working. Maybe cones at the entrances or something like that to keep people from coming in both directions and also stress that it is not a road to use as a regular road. Besides that, I think it's a great idea.

The city has been great working with us thus far, and I'm sure we will continue this great partnership. And that's it from Richardson's. We appreciate you guys. Thank you. Tiffany

Hernandez.

Good evening, everyone. I'm here to address several concerns that were raised last night at the at the meeting for the repair shop at 370 Ruby Street. First, there were comments about past issues with new businesses on Ruby Street not having adequate parking. I wanna clarify that our property includes a parking lot with space for approximately 25 vehicles, which we do not anticipate needing to use all those spaces at once. But the capacity is there to ensure that the customer and service vehicles remain on our property, not on any street.

It was also mentioned that the vehicles have been left on the street, creating congestion and safety concerns. From what we understand, these concerns appear to stem from one ongoing business with central mufflers, not our business. Central must mufflers have limited on-site parking, which has resulted in cars being parked along both sides of Ruby Street, on Center Street, and at times even on the side sidewalks. We agree that this creates a dangerous situation, and we have personally experienced difficulties due to their overflow of parking. We were also compared to other businesses, such as Broadway Auto Body and Central Mufflers.

However, these comparisons are not accurate. Broadway Auto Body operates in part like a car dealership displaying multiple vehicles for sale in addition to repair work. Central mufflers, as mentioned, has very limited space. Our operation is designed specially to keep all vehicles contained within our own lot. Another concern raised was the police were reportedly present at our property on Saturday due to vehicles being parked improperly.

We take this this claim seriously. Police officers were not on our property. We believe there is some confusion and that this is incident may have involved central mufflers rather than us. It was also stated that our property lacks parking, which it does not. We fully understand and respect the community's concerns about parking and safety.

However, we wanna be very clear. We have never parked vehicles on the street, and we do not have to do so. Our business model and property layout are specifically designed to avoid contributing to the issues currently affecting the area. Finally, we acknowledge that our special permit is on not becoming a nuisance, but fully support the condition, and we are committed to complying with all regulations. At the same time, it raises a fair question as to why ongoing issues with other businesses have not been addressed in the same way, especially given that multiple residents have reportedly filed complaints.

We are committed to being a responsible and respectful addition to the neighborhood. We will continue to work closely with the city to ensure that traffic flow, parking, and safety are properly managed. We respectfully ask that you consider the distinguish distinctions between our business and others in the area when evaluating these concerns. Thank you for your time. That's it.

Michelle Arana.

Sorry, I'm gonna have to read it. I can't see you guys, but I need this. Evening, mayor, city council, city staff. My name is Michelle Arana. I'm the very proud owner of Interno Greenery and Home located at 81 North Chicago Street in Downtown Joliet.

While I appreciate the city's efforts to create a social district, as this type of initiative is proven to support small businesses, increase foot traffic, and enhance the overall visitor experience in downtown districts across our country, I would like to express my concern about the proposed requirement that limits participation to businesses with full commercial kitchens. While I understand the intent, this requirement unintentionally excludes businesses like mine that already hold a City Of Joliet liquor license and are certified by the Will County Health Department, such as Internote is. Internote has met the city standards to responsibly serve alcohol, and we actively contribute to the vibrancy of our downtown through our retail store, creating special events such as the Chicago Street Farmers Market and my service on the Joliet City Center Partnership Board of Directors along with multiple committees. Under the current current ordinance, not only are we excluded from participating in the social district, we would also be placed in a position where we must monitor and restrict customer behavior more heavily than neighboring businesses despite operating under the same licensing authorities. This creates an uneven playing field and introduces operational challenges, including the need for additional staffing simply to enforce boundaries that do not apply to other nearby businesses.

More importantly, it may discourage future businesses such as wine bars, tasting rooms, or other specialty beverage concepts from investing in Downtown Joliet if they're unable to participate in initiatives like this like this. Across the country, social districts have been implemented successfully in a wide range of the communities, and there is a strong overall impact economic impact when participation in these social districts is inclusive. I respectfully ask the council to reconsider the full kitchen requirement and instead evaluate participation based on existing liquor licensing and regulatory compliance. Doing so would not only support a more equitable business environment, but would also encourage growth and investment in our downtown. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Okay, that's everyone who I have signed up. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on an agenda item this evening? Okay, seeing none. Under appointments, the mayor is recommending John Simpson, Peg Steubert, and Deborah Summers be reappointed to the Joliet Arts Commission. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilwoman Navarro.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudran?

Aye.

Councilwoman Quoman? Aye. Councilman Reardon? Aye. Councilman Cardenas?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy?

Aye.

Motion carried. Next we have council committee reports. We'll start with land use and economic development.

Good evening. So to land use and economic development committee met here yesterday, Monday, 05/04/2026 at 03:30 in the City Hall Council Chambers. In attendance was councilwoman Ibarra, councilman Mudran, and myself. We had the approval of the minutes and then we reviewed two agenda items starting with agenda item TMP ninety seven fifty one, a resolution to authorize a TIF incentive agreement with Matisse Events LLC at 113 North Ottawa. It's in regards to a fire suppression system that is necessary for the additional square footage.

We have we're gonna he's requesting a $79,500 to help fill a gap in between the cost of the suppression system and staff has reviewed the request and determined that the proposed improvements are eligible under the Downtown Joliet Tift District redevelopment plan. So we unanimously voted to approve to bring to council for a full vote with our support. And then next we had a TMP nine thousand eight forty six resolution amending and authorizing the execution of an amended and restated development agreement with Cullen and Joliet LLC for the Rock Run Crossing development project which we will have a full presentation on that here tonight. So, no need for me to kind of start going over that. So, Councilman Mudran, borrow, did I miss anything?

You got it.

Yep. Mayor, that'd be my report.

Thank you.

Legislative. Okay. Legislative met on 04/29/2026 in the council chambers here. In attendance was councilwoman Sherry Reardon, councilman Cardenas, and myself, Jan Quillman. Also in attendance was Counsel Todd Lindsey, Deputy Senior Manager Krista Desiderio, Development Director Dustin Anderson, and a lot of other planners and directors were also here. If I name everybody, we'll be here a long time. So just so you know, everybody was here. We had three items on our agenda, the first item being the city square ordinance. And we voted on that. And I'm not going to go into great detail about that.

But that was brought to vote. And it was unanimous vote, Mr. Cardenas, and Sherri Ritten, and myself. Number two was the offenses in City Square. That was also discussed at length, especially with our attorneys. And that was also brought to a vote. And on Cardenas, myself, and Ms. Reardon, we all voted yes unanimously again to go with that. And last but not least was the proposed social district. This will be a six month pilot.

So nothing is written in stone as of yet because we want to see how this is going to work. And again, we all voted on that as well. And it was unanimous to go to the city council for future references and see how this all works out. And you can get all this online, right, Todd? I

don't know if it's there right now. Need some technical details.

Okay. With all the details that you because everything is a very long paragraph, but very informative. So if you want more information, eventually it'll be on our website. And anything else? No. Okay. Right. Thank you. That concludes our report.

Thank you.

Public safety.

Thank you. The city of Joliet Public Safety Committee met today here in the council chambers at 05:30. Present was myself, councilwoman Coleman, and councilwoman Ibarra. We approve the minutes from 04/07/2026. There were no citizens to be heard on any agenda items.

Under agenda agenda items fire chief Carey was here. The purchase of interior wall painting and sanding services for fire station one and fire station nine from Smith Painting Services in the amount of $67,062. The painting is well over 20 years old and they're going to patch and paint. And so that all three of us approve this to move forward at a later date to to approve this at the at a council meeting. There was there were no ordinances on the resolutions.

Resolution authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding, MOU, between the city of Joliet Fire Department and the east east side Joliet Fire Protection District. Basically, chief explained it is, there are times that it takes usually six to ten minutes to get to the Far Southeast Side Of Joliet. And this is an agreement with Eastside Joliet Fire Protection District. At least we can get East Side rolling there and we'll continue to be en route. And we just want to be able to get our equipment and personnel there to take care of any issues.

There have been times where we've had a train go by there on Washington Street and it just kind of slowed things down. Is that accurate, chief? Okay. All three of us were in favor of this moving it forward at a later later date to the full council. Next resolution approving approving a intergovernmental agreement with the county will for the placement of license plate reader reading cameras located on county highways.

Basically, we will have the authority and agreement with the county to place these flock cameras on county highways. All three of us were in agreement and we will move this to a full council for approval. Then a resolution requesting authorization to enter into a regular 2025 justice assistance grant intergovernmental agreement between the city of Joliet and Will County. These are federal dollars that come to the county and then would come to the city. I believe chief Evans, you said last year we received $50,000 and it goes a good use.

So all three three of us were in favor of this moving it to the full council. I wanna go back real quick. Jan Coleman had a question about some movement. I guess it's Plainfield Fire Protection District or Plainfield Fire Department. They are trying to inquire some property by the mall. There's nothing formal at this point, but that is moving forward. You wanna add on anything like that?

Or Well, that's why I was asking about it because I haven't heard anything for a long time.

Yeah. There's nothing formal on that at this point, but she did bring up the question. I wanted to just talk briefly on it.

The thoughts are

still out there, though, from what we from the report we received.

So see where it goes.

Yep. And then on our new and old business, councilwoman Coleman brought up and it was in the paper. We we gave a bunch of accolades to Bill Evans, our police chief who who is going to retire. I can say that now. Right? It's public. Okay. We we just wanna thank you publicly all the great work you did, and and we wish you all all the luck moving forward.

He still has another meeting, I believe. Don't you? Yeah.

Well, this will be this will be the Pushing

him out the door.

Hang on.

Public safety. Public safety. Last one for public safety. Other than that, there was no new or old business in addition to that. There were no public comments, and then we adjourned. Mister mayor, that's my report. Thank you. Okay.

And finally, we have public service.

Always finally. So we all gotta get our singing chops up for the next meeting so we can sing for he's a jolly for good fellow. Right, chief? The public service committee met yesterday at 04:30 in the afternoon here in Council chambers, and that would have been Tuesday I'm sorry, Monday, May 4. In attendance on the committee is councilwoman Rairdon, councilman Mudrin, and myself.

We had six contracts. The largest contract was for 1.8 almost $1,900,000, and it's for the Campbell Street Water Tower Rehabilitation Project to Era Valdivia Contractors Incorporated. The all weather, the protections covering or coatings have reached the end of their their lifespan for that. So we have to to preserve that water tower, do it again. And it's not cheap.

In addition to the 1,900,000, 159,000 was given to engineering, which is less than 8% of the total project. The other five contracts varied in the amount. Just a reminder, all committees, including our public service committee, can be found online just like the city council and pre council meetings. There are no videos, but there's audios and there's written minutes. You can always go over them. Everything on our public service committee meeting is on tonight's agenda, and we briefly went over them yesterday, so I won't be redundant. So we looked at the six contracts.

We found them all to

be in order, bid appropriately and legally, and unanimously move them forward to to the council with our recommendation to approve. Then we also looked at a required membership in the Lower DuPage Watershed Coalition Coalition in the amount of about $25,000. Again, we unanimously approved that. We move forward with the recommendation for the council to approve it. Under the ordinance and resolutions, three of them are all part of the Grand Prairie Water Commission or the alternative water switchover we're doing in 2030.

And so it's kind of like housekeeping under the contract as we move towards it. Two of them had to do with us giving them easement and right away to put in the connection between the water from the commission coming from Lake Michigan, where it's gonna then, if you will, ownership will turn over to the city of Joliet. And under the agreement with the Grand Prairie, all communities, including Joliet, have to provide that space. Again, we looked at the five items under there, which are all found on tonight's city council meeting. We found them to be in order and unanimously approved to move them forward with committee recommendation to approve. Other than that, I have nothing else.

Pat? Nothing.

Then that means, mayors, that's our report. Thank you. Thank you.

I show no other reports. Under consent agenda, approval of minutes. It is recommended the minutes of the pre council meeting 04/20/2026 and the city council meeting held on 04/21/2026 stand approved as recorded. Invoices to be paid. It is recommended this report be approved.

Council memo number 233Dash26 award of professional services contract for roadway mapping and pavement analysis condition classification to cycle media technology incorporated in the amount of $190,950 council memo number 234Dash26 award of contract number 2975Dash0426 for the public utilities department generator purchase to metropolitan industries in the amount of $349,302 council memo number 235Dash26 order of contract number 2976Dash0426 for the east side wastewater treatment plant final clarifier repaint to dynamic industry industrial services in the amount of $327,600 councilmember number 236Dash26 award of contract to number 29770426 for the East Side Wastewater Treatment Plant final clarifier slide gates installation to Don Mechanical Industries Incorporated in the amount of $68,888 Councilmember number 237Dash26 award of contract number 2979Dash0426 for the well 18 d rehabilitation to Great Lakes Water Resources Group in the amount of $220,907. Council memo number 238Dash26 approved payment of the 2026 membership dues for the lower DuPage River Watershed Coalition in the amount of $25,140.08. It is recommended council memos 233Dash26 through 2238Dash26 be approved. Is there a motion to approve all said consent agenda items?

Motion to approve. Second.

Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motioned seconded to approve. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilwoman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilman Quillman. Aye. Councilman Verdun.

Aye.

Councilman Cardenas? Aye. Councilman Clement?

Aye. Mayor Darcy? Aye.

Motion carried. Under agenda items, council memo number 240Dash26, order of contract number 2961Dash0226 for the Campbell Street water tower rehabilitation project to Era Valdivia Contractors Incorporated in the amount of $1,893,000 and a word of construction engineering services agreement to Dixon Engineering Incorporated for the not to exceed amount of $158,950. It is recommended councilmember number 240Dash26 be approved. So moved. Second.

Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilwoman Navarro?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno? Aye. Councilman Mudrin? Aye. Councilwoman? Aye. Councilwoman Reardon? Aye. Councilman McCartney? Aye. Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy?

Aye.

Motion carried. Under resolutions council memo number 242Dash26. Aye. Resolution amending and authorizing the execution of an amended and restated development agreement with Cullen and Joliet LLC for the Rockland Crossing development project area.

Good evening, counsel. I'm proud to say that great things keep happening in Joliet. After eighteen months of working together, this amended and restated redevelopment agreement before the council will tie incentives directly to performance, attract a major anchor with Dick's House of Sport and all the retailers that will follow, put Rock Run Collection on track to be the first of its kind destination for shopping and dining at 55 And 80, the crossroads of America. I'd like to thank city staff for their diligence and working with our experts to negotiate the best agreement for the city. I would also like to introduce our experts here today that will be here to answer any questions you may have.

First is David Reifman, who was our lead negotiator and long term development attorney. Wait, David. Randy Kulot, who is our counsel. And Jillian and Samantha, who are here from SB Friedman. With that, I will hand it over to Kevin Singh, our finance director.

Good evening. Just to recap on some of the points from last night. The development in Wickin is at 300 acres at Interstates 55 And 80. It included a new interchange at Interstate 55 and Route 59 and is currently home to the Hollywood Casino, 900 square feet of industrial, the Chipotle. There are two sixty four apartments under construction with completion expected in August as well as a Ricky Rockets and Drury Inn hotel under construction at the site.

Amending the agreement, the amendment of the agreement first off rebalances our risk from our original $100,000,000 bond that financed the infrastructure at the site. In fact our risk is being reduced by $16,200,000 just by approval of the agreement. We were also to add requirements for performance and penalties for non performance. Cullen will go through the mix of retail and restaurants that are made possible by this agreement. And then also tax revenue will be higher to the city of Joliet at $234,000,000 between now and 2044. And then I'm actually going turn it over to Vince Corno from Dick's House of Support.

Good evening. Evening. Mayor Darcy, members of the council. Honored to be here tonight and couldn't be more excited. I will tell you, I'm a resident of the Chicagoland area and this one is a pet project of mine. We really want to see this come together. And you are on the cusp of approving the path forward for a world class mixed use development that includes one of the largest retail developments ground up in the country. Just figured today we would give you a pre a preview of Dick's House of Sport and what it is and where we're going with it. This is not your mother's or father's Dick's sporting goods. We've had a long history in the city of Joliet.

We've been very appreciative of that. The story is very successful. That usually is an attribute that leads to our interest in doing something at this scale. Perhaps what I'll do first is just kind of go through the conceptual genesis of a House of Sport and how it came together. Ed Stack, who is a very inspiring leader, he's our executive chairman. He's the son of the founder of Dick's Sporting Goods. Started with two bait and tackle shops in Upstate New York. I got out of undergraduate and decided that he wanted to go to law school. And his father put a kibosh on that very quickly and said, no, you're not going to law school. You're going to help with the family business.

And this is what puts food on the table for your younger siblings at number four. In any event so he was very frustrated, but then he embraced it. In any event, he's grown the two Upstate New York blatant tackle shops to 750 Dick's Sporting Goods across the country. He's very inspirational. He's always looking around the corner. He always wants to understand where the competition will be coming from in the future. So about ten years ago, he gave the charge to a senior leadership team and said, look, I want you to come up with a concept that will put every Dick's Sporting Goods out of business. And hence, here we are ten years later with Dick's House of Sport. There are presently 34 of these in the country. Joliet would be the beneficiary of having one of the very few ground up prototypes that we're building.

A lot of these are taking the form of retrofits of empty department store boxes and enclosed mall settings. I'll touch on that in a second. But this is this is something that is entirely different from anything that we've done. It's a paradigm shift. He's trying to the mission that I get drilled into my head every day. He wants to reposition the entire real estate portfolio Dick's Sporting Goods. So we are going to be market dominant for the next thirty years. So with that, I'll just go through a quick quick PowerPoint presentation here. So again, Dick's House of Sport, a typical Dick's Sporting Goods is about 50,000 feet, which the one that we have with you in your community today. We've more than doubled the size.

It's a 120,000 feet on two levels. This really is geared toward the evolution of retail. I think we are one of the most forward thinking retailers out there bar none. The experience is an important element of this. So another key component that you see to the left of this photo, this aerial, couple of elements that corner glass enclosure houses our climbing wall. So you can come in and actually climb a wall inside the store environment itself. And then we have an outdoor component called the field. Presently have 15 of those across our portfolio. So not every House of Sport gets a feel, but it's an important and integral part of our our mantra here. And and it's been almost kind of surprising, almost by accident.

Initially, the field was conceived to be 17,000 feet of astroturf with a track around it, very, very high quality surface. And the idea was, if you come in and try on a pair of soccer cleats and you wanna go, you know, you wanna see how they really feel on the field, you can go out on the field and kick a soccer ball around or you can throw baseball around and try out a glove. So it was almost initially conceived to be sales support more than anything. Turns out that it is really the the crown jewel of our community outreach. So these fields basically serve as venues for birthday parties, yoga classes, summer camps for kids.

We'll have celebrity appearances. You know, you you local Russell Wilson who was then the quarterback of Pittsburgh Steelers was, you know, throwing out throwing passes to kids out in the field in in this store here in in Ross Park. So, in any event, the field is an important component here. We would have a field that would have a very prominent position right along the freeway. So this would be a real beacon for for the community, for the project, and then for Dick's Sporting Goods. 14,000,000,000 in sales for Dick's business or just the Dick's business. We acquired Foot Locker last year. You may have read that. That added another $8,000,000,000 to our top line. So we are we are big and continue to grow.

But again, we're relentless in trying to strive for perfection in terms of retail. This is a house of sport that we did in Binghamton, New York, which is the home of Dick's Sporting Goods. This is where Ed Stack was raised. This was a former Kaufman's department store that was basically an empty anchor in a dead mall. A local friend of his in in the community said, just bought the mall Ed. Would you do a house of support in our community? And we did. So we transformed that particular box. We built the field as you can see there. Interestingly, that ice rink there is one that we do with select locations in cold weather climates.

It's really yet another another means by which we reach out to the community. That particular ice install, it's it's interesting. The developer who owns the balance of the mall said, Ed, do you mind if I put a big Christmas tree out there first Christmas that we were opened? And so sure. No. No problem at all. So it really has turned into Binghamton's version of Rockefeller Center. People go there, public ice skating sessions, the kids get out there and they practice ice hockey, the mini mites. It's not a full NHL regulation sized rink but nonetheless it's a it's a very important amenity and we have a lot of fun with it. Another interesting story to show how how demanding it is.

I don't know if you can see the window that's above the rink there. We were walking the store literally a month or maybe a little bit more than a month before the grand opening And that was a back of house portion of the store. And Ed said, wouldn't it be cool if we could do some type of window so that parents when they come to watch their kids practice hockey could watch from inside where it's warm up above the rink. So everybody got together and we we got it done. We got that window installed in in record time.

And that's now an architectural element of the store everywhere we're going. As I mentioned to you, interactive experiences are very important. Elevated service, high heat product. One of the secrets to this particular model is that apparel and footwear, there's been a convergence that we've seen. You you look at societal norms have changed over time.

Know, it was was going to be a long time when I was in law school thirty years ago that I would ever think that I would go to a city council meeting in anything other than a blue suit and a button down and a tie. So I think what that's done is really provided a tailwind for us. A lot of the fashion trends that you see lend themselves towards the athletic footwear and apparel. That's a big component here. And it's allowing us to get brands that we never really would have even dreamt of even five years ago. And I'll touch on that in a second. The interactive experiences are very important, though, as I mentioned with the field. A couple of other elements, we have a batting cage. The batting cage is is not a baseball batting cage. It's it's computerized so that you can place anything.

You can play lacrosse. You can shoot soccer balls against the best goalies in the world. So it's it's a very important element. One other thing I wanted to mention that is kinda cool. We're always always challenging each other to come up with new and innovative ways to retail. One one anecdotal thing that we're doing in our stores. We're using RFID technology which are the chips and you put it in the merchandise. And initially it was, you know, the intent was to track the merchandise more accurately in your inventory. But we have parlayed that into a marketing tool. And so we have these displays in houses of sport where you can go up and it's a screen and embedded in the screen are different shelves.

And on each of those shelves is a different shoe, an athletic, you know, an athletic shoe. And it's called lift and learn. You can go up to this this fixture and pick up the shoe and the shoe and the screen will automatically start to tell to tell all of the attributes of that particular merchandise. Know, it'll give you the 360 degree. It'll show you the, you know, the the technological advancement. So it's that type of thing that we're incorporating in our stores. Another thing that we're doing is what we call our Dick's Media Network. We built a complete infrastructure behind all the Dick's Sporting Goods stores. And when you go into a House of Sport, what you're gonna see is a high level of LED displays. We use them on all of our fixtures and that's all centrally controlled.

All the content is centrally controlled and it's a really cool way to promote within the store environment itself. So this is something special. This is something that nobody else I would challenge that I don't think anybody else in the business is doing it. As a result, we've seen very pleasing results. We've seen other retailers say, wow, if you have a Dick's House of Sport, I'm in because it's that special. So this is a rock wall that I mentioned earlier, glass enclosed. It's a it's a very prominent architectural feature of our stores. Kids can come in. There's a bell at the top there. It's it's, you know, we're we're we're in the business of memory making in this environment And that that this is a this is a core element of it.

There's a field. There's the ice rink. Golf is Ed's favorite sport. He's a scratch golfer. And as a result, we have a big big golf presence in these stores including putting greens. There's new technology out there called Put View, where you can actually get on a green that's inside the environment. And you hit a ball, and the ball will be tracked by lasers that are up above. And it'll show the path of your ball and then the prescribed

path to

get the ball into the hole. Pretty pretty cool stuff. Hit tracks, I mentioned the batting cage. That's an important element. And here's a quick video that is just gives you a feel for the store.

It is not like anything you've seen before. So that that that captures it. That you really have to see it and feel it to really get the full effect, but we're very proud of it. A few things that might be of interest to you all. We we have we I mean, obviously, when we're building at this scale, the market draw is much greater.

The geographic area that we capture is much greater. The visits are much greater. These slides illustrate a number of these concepts. Perhaps most importantly though and I think you know we we we have established ourselves as a leader in the industry. So with this commitment to this project will be a host of other commitments that you'll get from other retailers that want to be around us because they recognize the traffic that will generate for the shopping center.

Create jobs, the visits, the dwell times are are up. This is a slide that captures just some of the names. Viore was a big one just recently. Arc'teryx, we've got a huge relationship with Verity. Jim Sharp, first time in The United States to distribute through bricks and mortar retailers through us.

On Running, we were one of the first partners with On Running to bring that brand to The United States and that has been tremendously successful. Chubby's you start to just go through this and a lot of these brands kind of blur the line between you know athletic footwear, athletic apparel and fashion athletic or fashion apparel and fashion footwear. One interesting new idea that we had, this was the genesis for this is when Paul Skeens came out of college and he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates. There was such a buzz and tops trading cards. What they do is a rookie card with a patch that he actually wore on his first pitching engagement.

And he signed it and there was a big big big lottery if you wanna call it that where they put one of these cards in a pack and put it out there and everybody there was a frenzy surrounding and everybody wanted to try to get this card. Anyway, a kid in California ended up getting it in his pack and he had an option. You could keep the card or you could sell it. And so we decided to put it on the block and we paid and paid a lot of money for that card and we brought it back to Pittsburgh because we thought he's a Pittsburgh power pitcher. It should be in Pittsburgh.

In any event, we prominently displayed it in the store and then we we were we were really surprised by all of the interest that this card generated. So it it prompted us to think whole entirely differently about the collectibles business. And we're in the card collection business in a big way. If you would have told me even three years ago that we'd be selling Pokemon cards, I wouldn't believe you. But that's another interesting element for our store. Gymshark, I mentioned, we have these collab spaces, we call them. We designated a a portion of our retail floor area on the front of the store. And we do we do interesting and creative things. We have among the most creative merchants in the business I've ever seen. I've been in the business for thirty five years.

And this collab space is really where we feature new and know brands that are coming in from around the world. If they don't have a footprint in The United States this is a great forum for them to be able to demonstrate the wires and it's been tremendously successful for us. We have had a meaningful impact on existing malls. This is really almost you know it it what what's happened is when we come in and there's an empty anchor Sears box and an empty mall you activate that anchor naturally the mall becomes much more active and the sales increase. That's going to be a continuing theme.

We're starting to see the as we get more of these open, more of this data coming in. It's a very, very real fact. Mall sales go up, traffic goes up. And in this particular case, it's ground up so we we will be the primary draw. Right now, we're up to 34. This was an older slide. Got a couple more opening up before FIFA World Cup. One down in Arlington, Texas right across from AT and T where we're hopeful that there'll be a lot of lot of soccer fans coming into our store and buying jerseys. But we're delighted to be here. It's a privilege.

I wanna compliment your leadership. You know, there aren't many many leader or leaders in this country, not many communities that are as forward thinking as you all are. I know this is a big step financially, but no one else has stepped up to do this. And I think you will have the envy of many mayors, if not all the mayors across the country, when this is up and running. Think you're going to have people coming in from across the country saying, I want one of those. How do I get it? Because there's just not a lot of this activity going on. A compliment to Diane. She, without her vision, without her persistence, you know, we wouldn't be here today. And Mayor Darcy, as I mentioned to you, I'm always gonna remember that meeting in the trailer when I had my boss and you were there.

We were destined to go to another location. And your persuasive skills were very good. You were spot on. So thank you for doing that. This is our Boylston Street location right at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. So we're trying it in urban settings. So it's it's you know, this is this is something that we're proud of. 34 today, we're gonna get the 75 to a 100 of these by 2028. This will be the first prototype that we'll do ground up in all of Chicago land. We will have other houses of sport given the size of the community here. But this will be this will be a crown jewel. It will be exactly like we want it because it'll be ground up. So with that, I guess I'll turn it over. Maria?

Good evening, mayor, members of the city council, and city manager. I'm Maria Toleopoulos, chief strategy officer for Cullinan Properties. And I am excited to share with you what will happen once we build the Field Of Dreams that Vince just described and what it will do for the mixed use development known as Rock Run Collection in the city of Joliet and its community.

As you

can see on this slide, the new Dix House of Sport will be located in the area highlighted in yellow. This will provide exposure from both I-fifty 5 And 80 and will be visible during the day and evening with the lit field that Vince described. In addition, Dix House of Sport will serve as a key retail anchor, which will put the city of Joliet on the map as a nationally recognized super regional destination. Approving this agreement unlocks Cullman's ability to push forward with the significant amount of retail development highlighted in yellow, joining the over 1,000,000 square feet already completed or under construction at Rock Run Collection, which includes the Hollywood Casino at 170,000 square feet, the adjacent free public parking deck for 421,000 square feet, approximately 900,000 square feet of industrial development, and The View Residences, clubhouse, and garage, where over 117,000 square feet are complete and residents have already moved in. In addition to what's already open to the public, we are also under construction for an over 100,000 square foot jury hotel with 180 guest rooms and a 15,000 square foot Ricky Rockets that will join the already open Chipotle and recently announced Culver's and Chick fil A that Kevin alluded to earlier.

This demonstrates real momentum and real investment, and that the project is actively happening today. In addition to what I've already highlighted, we are ready to move forward with 300,000 square feet of retail construction this summer. This will bring the total new construction opportunity to 600,000 square feet and advancing the master development to 1,300,000 square feet. But this is not just about buildings on a site plan. It's also about the significant economic impact to the community through job creation.

The total master development will be responsible for 8,000 construction jobs resulting in over $510,000,000 wages as well as 5,000 permanent jobs with $200,000,000 in annual wages. These permanent jobs span across retail, hospitality, and other service sectors and provide the community with opportunities ranging from entry level positions to management. In order to make this happen, we need scale and we need an anchor. As a result of the draw that Dick's House of Sports brings, we have over 50 national and regional retailers that are contingent on Dick's House of Sports anchoring the project in order to come. This group of retailers represents a diverse mixed use environment comprising of traditional retail ranging from junior anchors, soft goods, and home furnishings to higher end lifestyle and apparel brands.

There will truly be something for everyone. The dining category will include a diverse mix of restaurants from quick serve to fine dining, catering to both daytime and evening weekend traffic. The jury hotel will bring guests from out of town when they're visiting the casino here for business or making a strategic stop along the way to participate in all that Rock Run collection and Joliet have to offer. We're also focused on entertainment as well as public spaces to provide place making opportunities for the community. And for the local community, we will be bringing various health and wellness retailers as well as everyday services and conveniences that not only serve the local community but also provide an opportunity for local retailers and businesses to grow and capitalize on the foot traffic and draw that the national and regional tenants and Dick's House of Sports brings to the project.

As you heard, Cullinan has invested in the infrastructure which unlocked the site for access, visibility, and viability and attracted Dick's House of Sport as an anchor.

The approval of

this agreement and the partnership amongst the city of Joliet, Dick's House of Sport, and Cullinan will bring significant retail from dining to lodging, shopping and entertaining to both serve the community, but also to attract new residents, young professionals, and employers to consider relocating to a first class project that has already gained national recognition and will shape Joliet's economic future and regional competitiveness. Thank you. And I'll now turn it over to Kevin Singh for additional context around the redevelopment agreement.

Thank you. So just want

to review a little bit about the financial requirements of the redevelopment or the new agreement. The first part is we wanted to make sure that the city was protected. It's also important to note that the payment of incentives will come from tax generated on this site, not from the city as a whole. We also tied the payment of incentives to the opening of stores, binding contracts, and vertical construction. We also accounted for any off chance that the project does get delayed, the incentive would be reduced annually starting in 2028, and that retail was of a high quality and had sales of $350 per square foot.

Part of the financial components is we are repurposing money that was included in the original $100,000,000 bond to create a payment reserve to create additional safety net for the city. The new incentive is structured as a reimbursement and paid on when revenue is being generated to pay back the incentive. And the new agreement has performance based incentives that are paid only if the project is successful. Additional benefits of the agreement is a much faster pace of development with retail opening sooner, more revenue to the city as I mentioned earlier, about $237,000,000 in addition to bond payments will come into city coffers between now and 2044. And then jobs were touched on, with 8,000 construction jobs with a payroll of over $510,000,000 and 5,000 permanent jobs with over $200,000,000 annually in worker wages.

And additionally, the site will become a regional destination.

Thank you.

Mayor, Kevin, could you briefly explain the city's 20% share?

Yes. So our share of the so first off, the revenue from the site gets generated. We then make bond payments. The city gets to keep 20%, and then the rest go to fund those incentives that I mentioned that are if the site is successful, once those are paid off, we receive 100% of

the revenue. The bond gets the first payment and the city gets the second payment.

City gets the second payment. So we'll collect 41 over $41,000,000 before the developer gets some additional funding.

And I wanna take a moment here because people aren't familiar with the representatives from Dick's that were here. They obviously are from Dick's Sporting Goods. They understand the column representatives, where they're at in this table. They know where the mayor and everybody else is. SB Friedman was mentioned. Mhmm. And they're a consulting firm after my own heart because they're very conservative. There's consulting firms out there. Remember when we brought them on some years back, there's consulting firms out there who will tell you whatever you want to hear. Ask me a favor, and they'll tell you what's going to

happen.

I do want to say that all the estimates and projections we've done on this,

if I understand it correctly, is at an 80% occupancy. So if we go 100% occupancy, which is very likely, it goes up even further.

Correct. We wanted to account for making sure the real world scenarios through SB Friedman that they accounted for retail turnover, only 80% of the square footage would be paying taxes.

And then the last thing I wanted to get before you sit down. Know, folks sometimes misunderstand, you know, the TIF and the tax incentives. Okay. So you have all this extra tax potential tax money. You're not collecting it because it's given to them. Therefore, everybody else pays the tax. That's not how it works. They are taxed. It goes into the TIF, and then they can draw off the TIF if they meet certain requirements

Mhmm.

Within the TIF. And when we do our levy, we do not include any dollars that were put into a TIF and any value of that property. So nobody's making up for any lost revenue.

Correct. It's actually created as a separate district. Does not have any impact on the city's levy.

Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Any other comments? Do we have questions for Dick's

on on the phone?

I think so. Yeah. I mean, it's it's vote time. Right? Can I ask him? Absolutely.

Okay. For Dick's, if I didn't understand this, thank you. So we are getting a ring?

That has not yet been determined. We don't put rinks in every one of the houses of sport. That would be a later date before we would decide on the rink.

So it's not a no for

sure reason. It's not a known for sure. It's not a known for

sure. You wanna kinda investigate the market to see if it Correct. And I can tell you there's a lot of hockey fans and young people trust me in the

role of this industry. I think you know that well.

Okay. What will happen to the current Dick's over on Route 30?

That too has not yet been determined. We're still in the very early stages. But what I would tell you what is commonplace when we surrender a 50,000 foot store that is near a House of Sport, there's obviously the larger volume that we would do in the House of Sport generates a lot more clearance merchandise. So we have a concept called going going gone that has backfilled a number of the Dick's sporting goods in fact that that's that's pretty commonplace. So I think that that that certainly is a possibility but it's not yet been determined either.

But it could be a clearance store or kind of like a factory direct that some people are

familiar with?

It could be, yes.

Okay. So, when will we know that?

It'll be later the deliberations. I mean, I think, you know, we start construction this summer. It'll be in the next twelve to eighteen months certainly. We're we're you know we will have to make a decision with that that real estate.

Okay. And then when we talked about the retail draw of the Dick's House of Sports, I understand that this is the first round up but we have other ones some don't have the fields. Let's talk about the ones that do. What the typical foot traffic? What's the typical draw? How many bodies do they

I don't have that off the top of my head. But I will tell you, it, you know, that that it is it is a material draw in and of itself. And as I mentioned to you earlier, it it really has become a community focal point. Another example, I I I talked about, you know, the yoga classes, birthday parties, celebrities, the the Pittsburgh Penguins in the in the rink that you see right there would hold camps for the kids. We also, you know, would would the in in the case of the Binghamton location, the local university, SUNY New York, they they basically didn't have enough time on their fields for the intramural program.

So they would come over after hours and use it. So it's almost a quasi public amenity as we see it and almost by accident because again this was supposed to be you know try before you buy this is a sales support amenity more than anything but it's really it's really panned out to be a really nice nice partnership with the communities we're in.

And how many do we currently have in Illinois?

Houses of sport? Yeah. One under construction in Woodfield, Schaumburg, which is a retrofit of a large DSG that we have there. It's a it preexisted, and it was a big building. So we're in the process of converting that. But no others that are in this far along in terms of development. We are in discussions pursuing a house of sport in Northern Park as well. But that too would be a retrofit. It wouldn't be a ground

up. Okay. And I think my last one will be a little it's kind of baiting, and that's okay. This could be

you or Cullenan. So we talk about the retailers that typically follow you. And I understand we all understand that

some retailers, until it it it is either approved or not approved. Right? If this is approved, how quick quickly can we expect to start hearing some of the names of the other retailers?

I would defer to my friends at Cullenan to provide you the timing on that. But what I would say to you, and we really appreciate the timeliness of the City Council's consideration. Because with the approval tonight, you put us in a position to be able to go to Las Vegas. We have an annual convention out in Vegas. It's called the International Council of Shopping Centers. It's one of the largest conventions in Vegas. May 18, so the next couple weeks we're going out. In fact, I'm bringing my boss Ed Stack with me on this trip out. Everybody in the business goes out for this. And to be able to go out and unequivocally say that, yes, we're done with the city.

Yes, we're done with Dick's Sporting Goods. We'll put Cullen in a pretty strong position to be able to start to to to nail down those commitments and go public with the identities of those that would follow us.

And if

you had to choose one, which Dick's House of Sports right now that's been built and obviously has the fields and all that is closest to what you're imagining for Joliet? Where would that be?

There's really very limited in terms of ground up. We did a conversion of Dick's Sporting Goods in Polaris in Columbus. I'm trying to think the Columbus? Columbus, Ohio. Ohio. And Polaris. Polaris is a shopping center. It's on the North side of town. But, you know, if if any of the council members would be interested in coming, we'd be delighted to have you come tour our Ross Park flagship. That's where kinda that's where the sausage is made, so to speak.

Well, I'm kinda giving a spoiler alert because now people can do a Google Google Earth search and see who's up who popped up around the other ones. Yeah. Okay?

I know that's true.

I think

if you if you talk to some of our landlord friends in the business, they're thrilled. And again, we only have had 10 of these that have normalized. They've been open longer than a year where we have a data set where we can even start to say the before and after what it looks like. But I will tell you that it's clearly demonstrable that when we come in the before and after is pretty dramatic in terms of the foot traffic that we're generating the shopping center, in terms of the sales performance, not only, you know, our store, but of all of the other retailers that are in enclosed mall environment. It is a real synergy that you get.

Okay. Thank you.

You bet.

Cullenan, can you answer the question? He deferred to

you? I

won't let you off the hook.

Yeah, no, I know. So obviously we can't release names. But we do have executed PSAs. We have executed leases. We have leases that are contingent on us being able to move forward, countersign, and announce with this deal because we can't fulfill the obligations under the current agreements until we get this deal done and ready to go.

So we are in a really strong position to actively move forward on the construction that we talked about based on the fact that we have those leases kind of in our back pocket ready to go. And so we really need this deal to move forward to start the domino, which will then obviously keep everything else moving. As Vince also mentioned, we have ICSE coming up in less than two weeks. And that is a huge opportunity to be able to focus on getting additional retail into some of those other locations where we've really been concentrating on under the redevelopment agreement, the lifestyle and the power center.

And it's my understanding that to

do their due diligence and their analysis, SB Friedman does have knowledge of this.

They do, but they're under a confidentiality agreement.

NDA. But they do have it, and they kinda gave us a conservative thumbs up. They are the unsung heroes of this process. Absolutely. Mayor, I'll just my final comments will be this. I was a little hesitant at first, you know, when we first Right. Yeah. We're looking at another 37,000,000. You know, my wife is frugal. I'm cheap. Okay? And so I I depend a lot on SB Friedman. I really do because they're just as cheap and and conservative as I am. They're they're a great firm. As it came together, I drilled a lot of people. Traffic can tell you. He had to use his handkerchief and wipe sweat beads off as I drilled them in his mouth. We we drilled really deep on this. I will say this. The gentleman what was the attorney? David?

Is that his name? David, you did

a great job in negotiating this, and I see this. It not only goes in a a better newer and better direction, it does take the old agreement, and it tightens it up quite a bit. It tightens it up. It this is a better agreement than the original one was. I have to tell you that. So I was slow to come to the table, but once I did all my due diligence and bothered a lot of people a lot of times, this is a good project.

Thank you. Mayor.

Joe asked first. I just

wanna thank Diane Cullen and her team. You know, this has been in the making for a while. And I wanna thank Dick's House of Sport, the City of Joliet. I wanna thank Beth and your team and all the city employees that city staff that that helped answer a lot of the questions that we had. We had a few meetings. I'd still like to see Tommy Bahama come. That would be a little outlet over there. Think we spoke about that. But again, very, very exciting project. We have the mixed use over there, industrial, residential, Hollywood's there. And this is just going to take off like crazy. But thanks again for coming to Joliet.

Yeah, just have a few quick comments. As far as the city goes, it reduces our risk. We're in a safer position than what we were in the old deal. We're holding the developer to performance based incentives and it's gonna bring a lot of local jobs. And this definitely a great project. I support it and thank you to city staff, Dick's and Cullen for making this happen. And my only concern may be, you know, my kids are probably watching this and they're like, hey, now we're gonna let's go spend some money over there. So I don't know how I feel about that, but I think I can support it. So thank you.

Mayor. So I think for the man from Dick's, the owner of Dick's, would you mind coming up to the mic for a moment, please? And thank you for coming to City of Joliet. It was a great presentation. I want to point out that you wanna be involved in community, and this is probably for the Cullinan properties. We have someone here from Tomorrow Starts Today nonprofit, Jeron Neighbors. He has a bunch of underprivileged youth that go to his youth center five days a week, and I'm sure this is a place that he would love to take the kids. So I'm hoping we can make connections like that. He's in the back with the glasses on. Raise your hand.

We can make connections like that and make things happen for the people who can afford it and for the people that can afford it. It would be great to be involved in community in that way. Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you. We

we we are very we are very active in in charitable initiatives that support sports. And Ed is impassioned by it. You know, he he he has a he he tells the story, if I may. When he was working in a store and and a a young kid came in and basically, I I won't do the story justice like he does. But in any event, the kid tried to steal baseball glove and started to run out.

And and they caught him in the parking lot and brought him in, and he was crying. And Ed Ed's father, Dick Stack, went up to the kid, and he said, why'd you try to steal the baseball glove? And he said, all I wanna do is play baseball. And Dick Stack looked at him and he said, you know something, son? He said, you can take that glove, go pick out a bat, and go pick out a ball, and never steal again. And, you know, he he tells that story with passion, and it really inspired him for the rest of his life, you know, to to make sure that those that can't afford to play sports are afforded the resources to be

able to do so. But we will be very active in that regard.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Mayor? Yeah. I just want to welcome you. I'm so excited for this to come. I've been just every meeting we've had, it just gets me more excited to see this is just going to explode. But I was telling my staff at my office before I left today, you guys are going to know about it. It's at our council meeting tonight about Dick's House Of Sports. And they're like, what is that? So we pulled it up on the internet. And we're looking at all the pictures. And they were all like, wow, this is amazing. And my one male in the office, he says, wow, I wish I was young again. This is great. But you're 28. I think he can do it. So he's excited as well.

We sell fashion too. We sell with fashion.

Well, thank you very much for investing in us.

Well, no, we're delighted to be here. And thank you for your consideration. Any other questions before I sit?

No. Just a nice comment if you may. Have been on this council for quite some time. Okay? And many, many years ago, we were supposed to put the Bridgetown Mall, which I told you when we had met. And me, more than anybody up here, have been waiting a very long time to get that property with a mall and sports and everything that you can theaters, everything you're gonna put out there. And I just cannot wait for this to happen. And it was worth all those campaigns just to keep this thing going so that we could get something out there. So thank you very much. And everybody, I'm very excited, and I knew someday this would come. I'm just glad I'm still here to join in the celebrations.

Stars are aligned. There's not a better piece of retail real estate in the country. I mean, the crossroads of America really really captures that, as Beth said. It's great real estate, and you will

be proud. Mayor? Can I Anybody else?

Cesar? Yes, I just want to comment. Again, as a city of our size, you know, we get a lot of big projects that, you know, we get approached with. And there's a lot of hard decisions that we have to make. And some of these big numbers, it's hard for, you know us to understand and or the general public to understand and I'm you know appreciative of our staff and all the trust that we have in our staff to make sure that we vet these projects and making sure that we're protecting the taxpayer and that we're getting this stuff done But, this is just another example of our city manager and our staff and everyone and their due diligence that they do and also the access that we have to experts, right, that help us in checking out these agreements.

And, I'd love to hear, like we know we have David Reifman here with us who was a big part of the negotiation on this and just your opinion on this agreement amended agreement and where we stand today on it.

Thank you Councilman. I think it's an excellent agreement for the city we had two objectives going into this which was first to make sure that we secured the deal for not only Dick's but for all the other retail that has to come with it. So it's not just Dick's. I think that's a very important point that in order for the city to be obligated to make any payments, there's also an additional 350,000 square feet of retail and hotel that has to go into this center. It's a it's a whole holistic project.

And secondly, it restructured the original agreement, which, you know, didn't give the city the type of leverage that it should have in a situation like that. All that's been kind of put back on track. Everything from the original project will be built as well as all these new things. So the city has remedies. The city has penalties if there's no performance. So I think it's an excellent agreement for the city. And I'm glad that I was a part of representing you so thank you.

Thank you, thank you. So yeah just to put it out there right we're still the third largest city in Illinois and we're gonna continue to grow and so you know when they compare us to a lot of other communities of what they do or don't do I think we're trying to set the pace and show and lead by example of what we can do to lead in a great way. But, I'm excited for this. I think in today's retail people have their opinion about retail but like in one of the slides where you said the chairman said he wanted to put something in front that would put us out of business and that's a great way to think, right? So, people today are looking for experiences so being able to go try on the shoes, yeah the days of shopping online are still there but at the same time I've ordered plenty of things where I just have to keep returning them because they just don't fit.

So, having that option of being able to then now go try stuff on, try it out on the fields, it on the golf turf and whatnot is going be exciting and like Councilman Moreno said being able to take the kids to do something as well and make a day out is going be great. Thank you for choosing Joliet and thank you to the staff.

I'd be remiss if I didn't tip my cap. I'm in front of a lot of municipalities across the country and bold leadership results in bold results and I think that what you're you're doing here is bold and it will pay off in dividends that you can't even imagine You know, there aren't many folks that are out there developing super regional ground up mixed use developments in the country. And this this will be a case example for many, many municipalities across the country as to how to do it. And I compliment you on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, I just wanted to tell them, you you like to to to weave a a story. You tell some good stories. So I got a story for you that might make you cringe or might make you cry. Councilwoman Coleman reminded me of it with her comments. Jan, you remember this. Right? We had the failed what was it called? The bridges or whatever it was called, and it was vacant.

Bridge Town Mall.

Remember when that company came about eight years ago and wanted to build warehouses there and turn it into a logistics?

Yeah. And that's

what was a

lot of

money upfront to do that. This council stood firm and said, no. We patients

were over that wanted to put warehouses up in there.

Right. Mhmm. And which was fine for his company. You know? Actually, we we have a partnership with them. You know? But that wasn't the right place. But, you know, we passed up several million dollars in in their incentives to get that done back then because we said there's something better, and then this happened. I will tell you one thing. You're in a weird city. If you're going to thanks. Thank you, Councilwoman Ibera, for bringing it up, the interaction with if if you go to schools, right, remember, not all schools in the city of Joliet have Joliet in their name. Plainfield schools are part of Joliet, some of them. Troy Schools are too. So if you need direction, so we make sure otherwise, you're just looking at like, you have Joliet Central High School, it makes sense.

Joliet West High School, it makes sense. Plainfield South is in the city of Joliet, and it serves Joliet residents. So we have three three districts, grade school districts, and five high school districts that serve our ours. So when you start doing your benevolence, remember to include all

of them. Duly noted. Thank you.

Mhmm. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Thanks, Vince.

Mhmm.

I'd like to make a couple of final comments. If anybody else wants to speak, go ahead. But every morning, my wife and I read the bible, and I try and garner some wisdom from Solomon. So in Proverbs fifteen twenty two, he says, plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed. And I gotta tell you, January '25, Diane Cullenan and her team, myself, Vince Corneau, and Ed Stack came to politely tell us that they weren't gonna come to Joliet. And after oh, I

don't know. We're probably in there a

good hour just kinda going back and forth and what would it take and how do we do it and what could we see. And the nose turned into a, well, let's take a look at it. And the collaboration that that has put this opportunity together is something I've never seen before. I've been on national councils with General Motors. I've been in a lot of things, but I really love this one. And, you know, first, I have to say thanks to the Cullenan team, to Diane. You know, you had the vision to put that interchange in and the perseverance to push to get it done. I mean, you know, you you had people as high as senator Durbin jumping when you asked

them

to, but

you got it done. And that was the emphasis to getting this project done. In the morning that we sat in that trailer and we heard no a couple times, it was a soft no. And we turned that into a a lively conversation. And I really have to thank Ed Stack and and Vince for continuing to pursue this idea. And we had an open house at the casino a while back and and Vince invited, you know, I call him the pied piper of retail. He invited many of the national retailers. And I can't say the names either because I don't wanna go to federal prison for six months. But I don't wanna break the NDA. But it was very impressive.

And the passion he put into this project, I think, even started to sell him even more on this idea. Because they are a leading retailer. They're so innovative that this is this is really a first in many places. And we're so proud to have your passion and your perseverance to help us push this thing to the end zone. I have I also have to thank, you know, Kevin and our staff.

You know, again, it takes much counsel to do a deal like this, and many hours are spent. You know, it seems like everything is all all of a sudden comes together once, but there's a lot of time and effort, and there's a lot of legal wrestling that went on with this. But it it worked out as a win win for everybody. So I really have to thank the staff of SB Friedman and our staff here at the city. And Dave Reifman, he's been monumental in helping us.

And Diane, your legal team was fun to work with. Not always fun, but we got the job done. And I really want to commend Beth Beatty. Beth Beatty came here as one of four finalists as our city manager applicants. And one of the things I heard her say was that she was used to working on complex deals.

And I gotta tell you too, to take a deal like this apart and put it back together is a complexity. And then you pull together the best counsel you can find, the Dave Reishman's, the SB Friedman's, and then everybody wakes to the call and everybody understands the job that has to be done and it was it was a lot of fun, I gotta say. One of the most fun things I've done in a long time. So I wanna thank everybody. I wanna thank the the residents for allowing us to to do something like this for the 150,000 of us that live here, and we're gonna be a regional draw for everyone.

But we're here for the best of the city. And and I thank this council and everyone involved in making this decision tonight. And I gotta say this path was cleared in a way that we all understand completely the complexity is now a simple project that we need to put together. And we're committed to work with moving this project along. We know that it's going to be monumental to get 300,000 feet built in an eighteen month window. But we're prepared to do it. And I just wanna say thank you to everyone that's involved in this and we are so grateful to kick this off, have you go to ICSC and make it happen. So thank you very much. I think we should run the vote now. Anybody else got anything else?

Okay. It is recommended that resolution be adapted.

I would recommend thank you for saving this for me. I approve this, oh, this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you so much. A lot of hard work, long long time waiting again, but I would move to approve.

Loretta? Second.

Thank you. Any other comments?

Actually, real quick.

I thought about it.

You had your time.

Alright. One more time. Look. Hey, Vince. You know, since Joliet's gonna be monumental, or it is monumental, and this this development is gonna be extremely successful, you know, maybe maybe you can talk to Ed, maybe moving headquarters down here to Joliet.

Thank you. That's a great idea. I

love that.

Thank you. Alright. Thanks.

Alright. Thank you.

It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilwoman Clemens.

Absolutely aye.

Councilwoman Reirdan? Aye. Councilman Cardenas? Aye. Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug?

Let me think. Aye.

Councilwoman Navarro? Aye. Mayor Garcia? Aye. Motion carried.

Councilmember number 243Dash26. Resolution to authorize a tip incentive agreement with Matisse events LLC at 113 North Ottawa it is recommended that resolution be adopted

so move second

it's been motioned and seconded to approve Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilwoman. Aye. Councilman Regerden. Aye. Councilman Cardenas. Aye. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Council memo number 244Dash26, resolution approving an easement agreement for the water delivery structure and between the Grand Prairie Water Commission and the city of Joliet, Joliet coronary delivery structure. It is recommended that resolution be adopted.

So moved. Second.

Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's a motion and seconded to approve. Councilwoman Clement. Aye. Councilwoman Rudin. Aye. Councilman Cardenas. Aye. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilwoman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Council memo number 245Dash26 resolution approving an easement agreement for water delivery structure by and between the Grand Prairie water commission and the city of Joliet Joliet secondary delivery structure It is recommended that resolution be adopted.

I'll move. Second.

Any comments or questions?

Thank you. It's

been motioned seconded to approve. Councilwoman Reardon? Aye. Councilman Cardenas?

Aye.

Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman Navarro? Aye. Councilman Moreno? Aye. Councilman Mudrin?

Aye.

Councilman McClellan? Aye. Mayor Darcy? Aye. Motion carried. Council memo number 246Dash26. Resolution amending three agreements between the city Of Joliet and Will County for American Rescue Plan Act funded projects. It is recommended that resolution be adopted.

So moved. Second.

Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve. Councilman Cardenas?

Aye.

Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug? Aye. Councilman Navarro? Aye. Councilman Moreno? Aye. Councilman Madryn?

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman. Aye. Councilwoman Reardon. Aye. Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Councilmember number two forty seven dash twenty six resolution approving an intergovernmental agreement between the Grand Prairie Water Commission and the City of Joliet establishing a joint improvement agreement. It is recommended that resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second. Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's a motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Clement.

Aye.

Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Councilman Navarro.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudran. Aye. Councilman Quillman. Aye. Councilman Meriden. Aye. Councilman Cardenas.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Council Member number 248Dash26, resolution accepting an easement agreement for the Railroad Street water main improvement project with Hawkeye Land Company in the amount of $40,000. It is recommended that resolution be adopted. So moved.

Second.

Any comments, questions? Thank you.

It's a motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilwoman Clement. Aye. It was nice to. Councilman Maruden. Aye. You too, Ben. Aye. Councilman. Aye. Councilman Clement. Aye. Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Under ordinances, councilmember number 250Dash26. Ordinance adding chapter 21 article 11 governing the general use and accessibility of city square property. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted.

So moved.

Second. Comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motioned seconded to approve. Councilman Navarro? Aye. Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Madryn?

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman?

Aye.

Councilman Maruden. Aye. Councilman Cardenas. Aye. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Councilman number 252Dash26. Ordinance amending the Jol Joliet liquor code by adding a social district to chapter four article two section 16 liquor permits. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted. So moved.

Second. Any comments?

Or Yes. I have a second? I do not I really want to see this happen. But I do not, in good faith, think that I can allow my business customer, business constituent to be left behind, who was recruited to come here to the city of Joliet, hung on by her fingernails, trying to make it work for her family, and leave her behind in all of this. So I'm shooting my shot to see if there's anything at all. Since we determine the liquor codes, we can additionally determine this person that desperately wants to be a part of that. And I don't know. I'm shooting my shot to see if there's any way that can happen.

The

ordinance, as written, took a lot to get in. It's a pilot program that goes for six months. So the way we wrote this is kind of a test case. At the end of the six months, we can reevaluate, but it what we're what we're trying to do is test to see if this works.

So if it's the will

of the council we can definitely look at it. There are legal reasons why we put the restrictions in is what Todd's trying to say but it doesn't mean that we can't bring it to council in a couple weeks or in a month or whenever to evaluate that. So it's really up to the counsel. I would recommend passing it for this evening. And I can commit to you that we will work with her. We have been working with her. We arranged a whole liquor license around her. So I don't know why we couldn't help further if she would agree to come to the table with all of us.

I'm going to talk to the liquor commissioner and see what he thinks. Yeah.

Mayor. Are you ready to go?

Yes. Thank you.

Mayor, yeah. I I mean, we brought it up yesterday. We did not wanna leave you out or others. I don't wanna hold this this up. It is a pilot program. Like like you said, Beth, we could bring this back when we think you know, I got a bunch of other ideas, but we're just not going be able to do it tonight. So but I'd like to move forward, get this going, and then we'll build on it.

I agree, too. I think I'd like to move it forward today. But if we had opportunity to talk about it some more and maybe bring it back in a few weeks or a month, whatever it takes, I would agree with that.

Mayor? Can I ask the city manager if we cannot make her wait six months but try and figure it out in a shorter period?

Absolutely. If she'd like to come in, I mean, immediately, we can have the discussions. I know Chris reached out to her a couple of weeks ago, so we're happy to sit down whenever she's available.

Mayor? Mhmm. Thank you. And that's that's great. That that's that works for you, ma'am? Okay. What I will say is just to stress it. This is a pilot. Right? This is a test run. We're gonna see whether we'll have it at the end of the six months. We may vote not to. Or whether we tweak it. Or whether it's such a great model and we find a space somewhere else in Joliet that we need to do the same thing, if that's possible. These are all possibilities down the road. You know? This is just a test run to make sure it goes well enough. It's it's it's in progress. It's a work in progress.

Exactly.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. I think we're all good.

Okay. It's been motioned seconded to approve. Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilwoman Quoman. Aye. Councilman Reardon. Aye. Councilman Carganus. Aye. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Councilman Navarro. Aye. Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried.

Councilmember number 253Dash26 ordinances associated with the approval of the Rock Run Crossings Lifestyle Center subdivision ordinance approving a preliminary plat for the Rock Run Crossing Lifestyle Center p Dash 4 Dash 26 Ordinance approving a recording plat for the Rock Run Crossings Lifestyle Center r P Dash 5 Dash 26. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted.

Move to approve. Second. Any comments or questions? Thank you.

If the motion is seconded to approve. Councilman Mudrin?

Aye.

Councilman Quillman?

Yes.

Councilwoman Rairdon? Aye. Councilman Cardenas? Aye. Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug? Aye. Councilman Navarro? Aye. Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy? Aye. Motion carried. Councilmember number 254Dash26 ordinances associated with the development of Rock Run Crossings Drive Phase 2 Subdivision. Ordinance approving a preliminary plat for Rock Run Crossings Drive Phase 2 Subdivision P Dash 2 dash 26 Ordinance approving a recording plat for Rock Run Crossings Drive Phase 2 Subdivision R P Dash 3 Dash 26. Ordinance approving a plat of vacation for approximately 1.7 acres of Courts Drive V Dash 1 Dash 26. It is recommended said ordinance be adopted.

Move to approve. Second. Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilwoman Wilmington. Aye. Councilwoman Riordan. Aye. Council McCartiness. Aye. Council McClement. Aye. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilman Navarro.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Madron.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Council memo number two fifty five dash 26. Ordinances associated with the development of the Shale Road subdivision and Rock Run crossings. Ordinance approving the preliminary plat for the Shale Road subdivision and the Rock Run crossings p dash three dash 26. Ordinance approving the recording plat for the Shale Road subdivision and Rock Run crossings R P Dash 4 Dash 26. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted. Move to approve. Second.

Any comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motion seconded to approve. Councilman McGruden. Aye. Councilman Cardenas.

Aye.

Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilman Quoman.

Yes.

Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Councilmember number 256Dash26. Ordinance approving a variation of use to allow an indoor and outdoor commercial recreation facility of b three general business use in the RB Restricted Business District located at 749 Hobart Road ZBA 2026 Dash 10. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted.

So moved.

Second. Any comments or questions?

Yeah, mayor. I think it's Mike. I spoke to you, earlier. Do you mind coming up to Mike and explain a little bit of background of what you're doing there and just the history of the scuba stuff? I know we had a good convo before as well.

How you doing? I'm Mike Peterson, owner of Dive Right In Scuba. My lawyer, Kathy.

Kathy wasn't representing represent? Like Mike. So

one of the things that we're looking to do, and we've been in business for twenty years in the Plainfield area as well as Orland Park. One of the largest dive shops in the world, actually coming right here to Joliet now as we needed some bigger space. And our swim program, the swim advantage is gonna be moving from Orland Park to here with a bigger pool at the Gallowich, formerly Gallowich YMCA and everything. And we're very excited to to really get going here. And I know Dick's is kind of riding our coattails of us coming to town. Absolutely. That's okay. We get that. You know? They heard about you.

They can sell all the stuff to the people that we are getting activated in sports and everything. So you know what we do in scuba, swim, the basketball courts. We have a local organization. No Mercy Basketball is gonna be renting the court space for basketball to really grow their program. And then we've got 12 acres in the back of grass for misuse with baseball, football. So it's gonna be really cool to continue the legacy that the YMCA created and spark something different in the area as well.

So you will have swim lessons for the public?

Correct.

Okay. And your kids too. Oh, there you go. Awesome. You answered all my questions.

Mayor. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for choosing Joliet. Great idea. Great great to have you here in the city.

Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. Councilman Marino, will you have any money left after you

leave Dick's? No. I won't. I Gotta buy one swimsuit.

Now you guys, I wanna be clear on this. The YMCA

was going, going, gone. Yeah.

The YMCA was nonprofit. Am I correct on that? Okay. These are not these are for profit. They'll be back on the tax rolls. Okay? And just briefly explain why we need to make the zoning change so people watching understand that.

Dustin, talk about zoning.

I love land use, councilor Huck. So this is a variation of use. So a variation of use asks the council to consider approving something that's Okay in one kind of district in a different kind of district, which means we can say yes in other places, but we're asking special permission to say yes here. So that is what's before you tonight. This indoor outdoor recreation use is a by right use in the b three zone, which is your basic commercial.

Galloway YMCA as a legacy zone was a restricted business. So staff supports this use here and administratively, we are recommending the issuance of a variation of use to allow

this.

And does the outdoor version indoor outdoor? That's part of the reason why we need to rezone it, right?

It's an approved use in the district this particular parcel resides in the restricted business district.

Thank you and welcome to Joliet.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

And you did say you're coming from Moreland Park. Right?

Yeah. We're gonna keep that store there too, though. But, yeah.

Oh. So

it's a location here in Joliet and Moreland Park

as well.

Well, they may be the golf capital of the world, but we're the scuba capital now.

Now you definitely will

be. Alright. Thank you.

You. Any

other comments? Okay.

Okay. It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Cardenas? Aye. Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug? Aye. Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilman Coleman.

Wish you luck. Aye.

Councilman Reirden. Aye. Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion carried. Councilmember number 257Dash26, ordinance approving a special use permit to allow an automotive repair facility located at 370 Ruby Street, ZBA 2026 Dash 18. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted.

Mayor, if I may. I went by there today And I'm going to ask for a table because it's very, very crowded. And you can't tell the difference between their business and the muffler business. There was cars all over. And I understand right now that Ruby Street's under construction.

And it's kind of a mess right there. But I would like to see a traffic study done before we approve this or disapprove it. It was quite the mess out there today. And it's very difficult to get in and out of there. And I don't know when Ruby Street will be done, if they'll be able to turn left on Ruby Street because that's a very difficult turn. That seemed to be the only in egress from that property. But to be fair, I think we should really look at a traffic study around there with all the car and differentiate between the two businesses. Mayor? So I'm gonna ask for a table.

I've been by there a few times. I was by there this morning

also. I.

And Tiffany I'm speaking now, Jan.

It's alright.

Tiffany, I believe, is correct. In the muffler shop, I had all the cars parked on the street, not quite onto the sidewalk, but was somewhat blocking the entrance off of Ruby Street. They do have more than enough parking on their property. I do have a question, I think, for Dustin. I don't

quite

understand the Center Street issue. I understand the corner where you wanted some green space and new sidewalk on Ruby. What was the requirement coming up? Sure.

I'll describe the site plan a little bit. The conditions that staff is recommending for the site improvements of this parcel include removing the asphalt at the northwest corner of the parcel, which is at the corner, the Southeast corner of Ruby and Center Street, to clear the cone of vision. So you have clear sight lines both coming off and coming on to Ruby and Center respectively. Removing the asphalt across a large swath of the northern part of the parcel along Ruby Street. Because right now, it's completely paved.

The whole site is impervious. So one of the conditions of approval that we're recommending you consider is the inclusion of some pervious surface, both to clear the cone of vision at that intersection and also to control the ingress and egress off of Ruby Street and Center Street. So with the improvements to that South East corner of Center And Ruby on the Northwest corner of the parcel, there will be enough area for an ingress egress onto Center Street that will be controlled. So if you drove past today, I don't know which direction you traveled to and from, but you'll notice that on Center Street, it's a zero drop entrance. It's just flat.

Street's flat, sidewalks flat, parking lots flat. That will be changed if you approve this as well. So there will be a clear differentiation and a clear entry and exit to that site from both Center and Ruby Street.

The Ruby Street today is a little different but are you saying they would have then two entrances on Ruby Street?

There would be one entrance on Ruby Street and one entrance on Center Street for two total entrances.

Today that would have been an issue because the muffler shop car was parked a quarter of the way into one of their entrances.

I don't doubt it for a a second.

Different issue.

It is and to be fair, we received some feedback as staff last night on another parcel on Broadway. I shared with a council member we did go over there. And this is something else that we're more than happy to stay on top of as well.

Thank you. Mayor? Yeah.

Question, Dustin. I think you just referred to that. Yesterday, we talked to the petitioner. He had come back come here sometime back and gotten a special use for a different business, a tire repair business, and there were certain restrictions and requirements for that special use. And you said you weren't here when that was issued, so you would check into it. Have they met all the restrictions and requirements?

I just want to be clear. Are we talking about the 1101 Broadway

Where's right your truck tire repair? That's not hers.

I think there might be a conflation of two different parcels that have similar challenges. There was at 1101 North Broadway some discussion about there was at one point in 2021 contemplated a truck repair. There was at one point in 2023 an auto sales contemplated with a special use that was granted by counsel. And that parcel accurately does have some challenges that we are addressing even today right now. So I think I don't want to put words in your mouth.

You tell me if I'm wrong. You're trying to get at a follow-up to what we talked about yesterday if there is a parcel that is in compliance. The short answer is they're in compliance with the special use, but they're not in compliance broadly. And we're taking remediation steps on those noncompliance items.

So if I may add to that, mayor. I went by there as well this morning. And in the back of the one little building is a vinyl fence. And there's rows and high tires above the fence line towards the back. And the front, they had well more than 12 cars. People were working on cars. There was cars parked on the sidewalk. And that was just this morning. And then just before the meeting tonight, the owner called me and said, oh, what's going on? And I said, look. How many times have I talked to you? How many times have you called me? And this has been a nuisance, and you haven't fixed it. And you keep saying you're going to do it, and you haven't done it. And he says, well, I'll get on it right away.

So maybe we can just follow-up with that. I just want that information out there.

But that's

not what we're talking about today, but that's what we're talking about yesterday. So did you go over there too?

Mayor. Thanks. Hey, Dustin. For this what's what's in front of us today, obviously, I know that there are certain things that they have to do before they're approved. Right? So I'm a we have a a yearly inspection. Right? A billing inspections that people go through? You get what I'm saying? Kinda.

We don't inspect every property on a yearly basis. For a parcel like this with special conditions, we do monitor that with the resources that we have. A lot of it is, hey, did you look at this? And we verify that they're still in compliance. Or there might be an additional request from that business owner and we go back to check compliance before we allow them to move forward with another application. So it's not like the residential rental program Where there is like we issue a permit and you're good for x period of time.

Okay. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

Sorry. Just real quick. If it does get approved today or whenever happens, I would like to see enforcement on the street parking. People park I don't we have it I don't know if anybody can see it, so we have the lines, and I actually drive by there quite often sometimes. Sometimes. People park, like, all the way up to the corner of the street and or, yeah, to the intersection, I should say. And, you know, we have it marked off to where you cannot. So and also in front of the the grocery store. And and it's dangerous. I don't wanna get I don't wanna see someone get rung over or something later on.

So I would like to see enforcement on there for the parking tickets or something. And so, yeah, those are my comments.

I think that's fair. And I think that our police department is incredibly collaborative and a good partner with our neighborhood services and our zoning inspection. So I think we're well equipped to execute for you.

One more question, Dustin. With what you described where there was the zero, know, that just goes right from the parking lot into the street. By making these changes, will this give a more clear delineation to where the entrances and exits are so that people would not park there? Obviously, it's an entrance.

Yeah, that's a great question. And absolutely, it would. It would make a visual clear delineation of where you can and cannot park and drive.

Yes. You. Mayor. Yes. So in reference to 370 Ruby, the petitioner, she she's saying we're she's not gonna park any vehicles on center or Ruby. So that's a plus. The problem we're having over there is the muffler shop. Mhmm. So, Dustin, now you're on board. You took care of you're you're working on that issue on Broadway. I'm very happy. We're not gonna talk about it, but you're doing a great job there already. So I'm happy about that. I think the same thing can happen here and the muffler shop. I think we we just have to get on it and have our police department issue some tickets and and we go from there. That's that's what I believe. I think I think this could work.

I think compliance with the law is a good baseline expectation.

And the bottom line, if this gets approved, they won't get occupancy until they improve the property to the specifications that our staff has put together on. Correct?

Yes. Thank you.

Alright. We have a first and second. Didn't know. You asked to table it?

We there was no We didn't we didn't vote on it.

We just talked about

was no second on that table.

I didn't Okay.

So it's the main motion we need to go to.

Was there a motion on the table? I didn't catch a motion.

You know what I said was I would I was thinking about tabling this because I wanted a traffic study, and then everybody just started talking. So there was never a motion made to to go with that.

Alright. So we need to move on to the main motion.

Okay. It is recommended that ordinance be adopted. So moved.

Second. Any other comments or questions? Thank you.

It's been motioned seconded to approve. Councilman Clement.

Aye.

Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Marino.

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilman Coleman.

I'm gonna hold you to this, Dustin. Okay? Because I really wanted to table this. But now that we have everything out in the open, what the problems are with the mufflers and cars and everything, I will vote aye.

Councilwoman Reardon aye council McCartney aye mayor Darcy aye motion carried next is the city manager's report I

will be brief because we've heard a lot tonight So I was able to attend a number of community functions since the last council meeting, including the Banks Bridal Suites ribbon cutting and Joliet Public Library Black Road Branch Open House with some of our other council members. We had some amazing local events last week as well, including the big house ballgame and City Square opening. Sounds on sixty six was our first event out at City Square. We will have a larger event on June 18 for a ribbon cutting. So I encourage everyone to come out for that.

May is National Historic Preservation Month. We're doing daily social media features throughout the month focusing on Joliet buildings and areas of historical and architectural importance. Yesterday was International Firefighters Day. It's a day to honor firefighters and remember those who have died in the line of service. Please join me in thanking our own Joliet Fire Department for all the work they do for

our

community. The Neighborhood Hero Award program is officially back for 2026. It's a program to celebrate residents who show exceptional pride in their property and contribute to the beauty and spirit of their neighborhoods. Nominations are now open and will be accepted through Monday, June 8. That's all I have.

Next we have public comments. Any comments on non agenda items this evening? If there is anyone who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item.

Good evening, Mayor and council members and staff. My name is Diane Matter, and I reside in Joliet. Wow. Not sure where to begin. So much to tell you guys. But let's start with yesterday. April 4, the force was really with Love's Truckstop. Thank the Lord no one was hurt. It could have been a catastrophe. A 20 ton a 20 ton excavator hit a two inch plastic high pressurized natural gas line, which led to a shelter in place for residents in the immediate area.

911 was called. The fire department that show the fire department showed up. There were fifteen nine court trucks that came to the rescue. It was very scary. They finally were able to squeeze the line to stop the pressurized gas from escaping. Wow. That was a close call. It took many hours to fix the problem. They didn't leave until 11:30 last night. Some of the workers NYCOR was left earlier.

If that wasn't enough excitement for you, here's more. On Wednesday, April 22, around 10AM, the fire marshal came out to inspect Love's truck stop development. We were informed that everything was fine at Love's truck stop, but he failed to see my neighbor's driveway that was left with a two foot drop overnight. What if there was a fire? I commend him for his efforts, and I thank him. On that same day, shortly after the fire marshal left, a representative of OSHA showed up. We were just entering the dangerous part of the road when we encountered the OSHA vested representative. We were shocked. That's the biggest and baddest people to come visit your development. You seriously do not want OSHA to show up anytime.

Allegedly, violations were found, and they were fined accordingly. There were times I just had to leave my car on the road and walk to my home. I just turned off the car and left it there. What was I to do? I needed to get home. It has been a living nightmare. We still have no mailbox to get our mail. I know taxes come out. I haven't got mine. I don't know if I ever will. We did get garbage picked up finally. There is way too much construction going on to consider this to be far from safe. Okay. Let's talk about my trees, which you guys are going be seeing a picture go around. My trees are going to die because the excavator damaged the roots.

When roots get damaged, the tree can no longer transport nutrients or water, causing the roots to solely decompose over time. I was told today by Peter Zubek that one of my trees possibly is a heritage tree. The ordinance '18 302 states an arborist needs to be on-site when excavators are involved. There was no arborist when this happened. A stop order needs to be put in place until this issue is dissolved.

Steve is well aware that he has killed our trees. He has told us twice that he knew he killed our trees, and that's the contractor. Now let's talk about our fence and driveway. Steve is also aware of the damage to our fence and the problems associated with our driveway. We need answers on who is responsible for all the damages we have suffered through because of Love's truck stop.

We did not ask this we did not ask for this, and we should not be responsible for damages caused by improper planning. Now I'd like to touch on ordinance 14 dash 17.21, signs regulation. On page two zero seven and page two zero nine, there are ordinances, regulations that I believe are being violated. So I am asking you that you look at the sign that Loves has put up and make sure that it conforms to the city ordinances. Now, I have saved the best for last.

Now, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people at St. Peter's Neighborhood Cleanup, Waste Management, all the police officers, the explorers, the CERT members, all the volunteers, all the people in organizations that donated prizes and provided donuts, drinks, pizzas, pizza, and also a big shout out to Councilwoman Zuzia Ibera for also joining in a fun filled, productive day picking up garbage. I also won some very cool prizes, so that really made it even better. We also attended ribbon cutting after picking up garbage at the Rock and Roll Museum with Councilwoman Ibera. I had champagne and cheesecake that just melted in my mouth.

The scaffolding was ugly to see, though. It's been there forever. Is it ever going to come down? We also attended the festival Friday night at City Center and ate at Richardson, which was very yummy. My favorite car was Betty Boop, but there were so many others that caught my eye. It was really a lot of fun. I'm really excited for this summer to have a place in Joliet to gather and enjoy activities in the new city center. Can't wait to see the dome done and attend the celebration. At this moment, I would like to thank everyone that has put in all the time and effort to make this dream for this city center to become a reality. I believe the City Center is going to be a great asset to the city, and you're gonna see a lot of people having a lot of fun.

It will be a terrific meeting place. I hope everyone checks out all the activities that are planned. I'm definitely planning on going to see the the Righteous Hillbillies. We can bring long chairs, can't we? Or blankets? All right, thanks. That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening?

I just want to thank you for listening to our concerns about our areas and our neighborhoods. I think the city's come a long way as far as its growth potential and growing. But I do think we need to go back to looking at our city services, our neighborhood services. There are a huge amount of abandoned cars. There are a huge amount of people with a lot of junk and garbage in their yards and in our neighborhoods is bringing down values.

There's a huge amount of people who are not maintaining to walk down the street, and you have to push trees out of your way because you can't use the street. We need to go back and get neighborhood services to come through our neighborhoods again like they used to. We we used to see them at least once a month, sometimes twice. I haven't seen one out there unless we've called them. And I'd like to see that become a a bigger and better program for the city so that we can keep maintaining our growth and the happiness of our people.

Thank you.

I would like to

thank you too for your consideration in our area. I would like to see a traffic study done up there though. And we will continue to work with the new business and try to solve some problems. Also, you put these nice little bricks up by our houses, my yard is full of snakes. I can sit out there, all the people. There's snakes all over the place. Why can't you go back to the concrete walls that we used to have? You've got snake motels all over, and they're starting to fall over. A lot of the places that my wall had to be refixed. So I wish somebody would do some consideration because I don't like the snakes. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening?

Oh, god. What a night. You know, I know how to top it all, but, you know, when I heard last night oh god. It talks about the panhandlers out on the Joliet Streets. You know, I pity for for them. I understand quite a few of them have their bad habits, drug habits, and everything, but you think they wanna be out there doing that. They don't wanna be out there doing that. And everybody says, oh, they try to help them, get them in the shelters. Well, I wanted to tell y'all, shelters are not the best place on the planet. I don't wanna ever go to shelter because they're terrible.

When you think shelters are heaven, and no, they're not because when they get you up at six in the morning, throw you out in the street, you've got to stay on that street all day. And you don't get to come back to the shelter till maybe four or 05:00 in the evening, and you've to be in bed by nine Well, a lot of people can't go to bed at night. They can't just shun their minds off and go to sleep. We're not robots. Lot of people don't like shelters. And that's why a lot of people choose to just stay on the street and live and be homeless. It's because the rules of shelters are just plain ridiculous. Like I said, they treat you like a robot. They expect you to live like a robot. And you're expected to sleep there with strangers sitting right there next to you sleeping, people you don't know.

You don't know who they are. You don't know their bad habits, they're snoring, or they stink and that. Who wants that? I therefore, I think that the whole dilemma about, you know, shelters is getting over you know, you guys need to understand how bad shelters are. They're not heaven. You know? And I've been homeless the third time in my life, twice by development, in which this last time has lasted forever here. You know? It's not a place that anybody wants to be is be homeless. You know?

We need more more, I don't know, more funds to go for funding homeless people. Because if we could build, have everything else be built and everything for everybody else and everything, you know, we need more homeless shelters and everything for homeless people. Because homeless, you know, people are being put in motels and everything now. Because there's just the housing is not there. Affordable housing, as we know, is not there for us poor people or us disabled people.

SSI simply does not pay enough to live on no matter what. You know, I suffer in, you know, for every day. You know, I struggle to, like, why should I get up in the morning, let alone try to get to sleep at night and everything? No matter how many sleeping pills I take, you know, just try to get to sleep. Let alone when I do get to sleep, I'm thinking, why do I wanna get up? What am I gonna do? I don't have my life anymore to to go outside and look at my flowers. You know? When I go to a store and see flowers at the stores and I cry because I don't have my flowers anymore. I don't have, you know, I don't have my mom's property to treasure anymore and do my things anymore.

And, you know, here in Dick's Sports, you know, one thing that hit me with Dick's Sports thing here when they're talking about baseball card collection, you know, card collection. You know, they talked about that one card they that they had thinking they was worth a lot. Well, I have my own baseball card, sport card collection, which, of course, I lost because of whimsy trucking taking my everything I had from me. And I had one of these rarest cards and most expensive the most expensive card in the country and in the world, one of those rare Homus Wagner cards. On eBay, over $7,000,000 card, as well as my Michael Jordan rookie cards and all my other top player sport rookie cards.

I had it all. But I lost it all because of development.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to mayor and council comments.

Cesar, I'm

a keep it long and brief. Now I just wanna congratulate the city and it was a great weekend with Thursday kicking off the big house game at the prison which was a great experience and it was cool to see Bill Murray walking around also visiting a few of the businesses. So it was just exciting to see all this going on in Joliet this past week. And it kicked off the one hundredth anniversary Red Carpet Corridor for Route 66. We've seen a lot of people from outside of Joliet that obviously have been visiting the city.

On Saturday I was able to attend the Route three thousand six hundredth anniversary telegraph ball in Springfield, Missouri where Joliet was also represented as one of the satellite cities for this Route 66 kickoff. Joliet right now is really the standard on the map or setting its place on the map for Route 66 and we're getting a lot of international travelers and stuff that are coming through here, so that was exciting. It was cool to see the Rialto also had a really big event, they had pretty, I think there was about 1,000 people that came through the Rialto on Sunday, which also activated our city square and it was great to see that. We had our first event with the Sound of sixty six in partnership with the City Center partnership, which was also great to see. So it's just good to see that finally the square is open and it's being utilized and see the excitement on people's faces as they're approaching the square is really cool.

And then lastly just thanking the museum also opened up the doors so that youth baseball league on Issa De Joliet was able to have a whole day of baseball on Saturday to experience being able to play on those fields. There's a league that's been around for about fifty years in Joliet that also got to experience it on Sunday. So, a lot of families that haven't had a chance yet or have not attended any events at the prison were there for the first time. The East Side Of Joliet and they got to experience the prison while the kids were playing, parents were touring, so everything was still open, so that was just really exciting to see. So just really seeing these spaces activated and the community taking advantage of it was really cool and happening. So just thank you to all the staff and everyone that's had a part in and just kind of keeping Joliet exciting. Thank you. Those are my

comments. Mayor, I'm going let you handle the all the big events. Know, it was busy few weeks. So, yeah, I'm gonna pass.

Can I have one more real quick? Happy Mother's Day. I can't forget that one.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. That's all I have here.

So I just want to say that $100,000,000 in community benefits from the data center agreement is brilliant. That's a lot of money. But I'm respectfully asking for some care, concern, and equity for District 5, particularly the East Side. The East Side constituents would really like a grocery store. But all of my constituents in District 5 would like great sidewalks, amazing roads, family friendly economic development.

District 5 definitely needs some equity, so I'm respectfully asking for that. I wanna wish a happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. My mother is amazing. Not only an amazing mom, an amazing human being, and has a million talents, including crafting, cooking, baking. So happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers in the city of Joliet.