April 25, 2024
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760 Joliet apartments draw more objections

Troy School Board member calls Cullinan plan a ‘bait and switch’

By Bob Okon
Groundwork continues on the Rock Run Crossings Development near the I-55 and I-80 interchange in Joliet on Tuesday, October 11th.

Groundwork continued on the Rock Run Crossings development near the I-55 and I-80 interchange in Joliet last week. (Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com/Gary Middendorf)

Troy School District officials on Tuesday criticized plans to build 760 apartments at Rock Run Crossings in Joliet, saying they will overload the schools.

Developer Cullinan Properties is slated to hold a community meeting on its apartment project at 6:30 p.m. Wedneday at Joliet Junior College.

The apartment plan, larger than what was originally proposed, faces opposition and was kept off the agenda for the Joliet City Council on Tuesday. But it is expected to go to the council when it next meets on Nov. 1 for a vote.

Troy school officials went to the council Tuesday to voice their opposition and concerns about the apartments.

School board President Mark Griglione said Cullinan told local officials they planned to build 260 apartments before getting a Tax Increment Financing District that will pour property tax dollars back into Rock Run Crossings for 23 years during which time schools will not get any money from the development.

“The massive increase in the size of this project is going to have an adverse impact on the Troy School District,” Griglione told the council.

Cullinan’s expansion of its plan to 760 apartments came out in September when the proposal went to the Plan Commission, which recommended approval. The plan met opposition there, too, from a few potential neighbors of the apartment complex and another Troy school officials who said Cullinan downplayed the impact of the apartments during the TIF process, suggesting it would generate only about seven students.

Council member Larry Hug noted the projection of seven students in comments at the Tuesday meeting. He said a more realistic projection is at least one future student per apartment.

The city would have to loosen its apartment density standard to let the apartment project go forward, and Hug said he was not willing to do that.

“We have an ordinance for density, and we need to follow that ordinance for density,” he said. “I want these people to know that I hear them, and I know what the truth is.”

Griglione was joined by Troy School Board Secretary Kristin Cross who called the Cullinan plan “a bait and switch from what was presented to us.”

The community meeting at JJC will be in Room U-1005 in the U Building.