Warehouse plan OK'd, despite effort to delay

LOCKPORT -- Alderman Pete Colarelli fought passionately to delay a city council vote Wednesday on a controversial warehouse project. And he succeeded -- almost.

But Mayor Tim Murphy, in a rare and candid public argument with his council ally, used his voting power to stop Colarelli's effort.

The council -- then pressed to vote yes or no on the warehouse project -- ultimately voted to approve it.

The warehouse issue has been a major source of tension, as several Homer Glen and Homer Township residents have fought to stop Lockport warehouse complexes at or near Lockport's eastern boundary. Many Homer residents live near these large proposed complexes. Some live right next to them.

Dozens of residents crowded into Lockport's council chambers. They saw an intense debate, full of plot twists and turns, running late into the night, on an issue of great importance for Lockport and its neighbors -- and for Murphy and Colarelli.

 

Colarelli's request to delay the vote was a surprising move.

"You don't walk in and throw a hand grenade in the room," Alderman John Collier told Colarelli, referring to the unexpected request to delay.

Colarelli defended his reasoning. He mentioned the city's hiring of a firm to study potential growth along the new I-355 tollway corridor. The firm, Houseal Lavigne Associates of Naperville, is performing an analysis in order to determine the best and highest use of Lockport land along the tollway.

The firm is not studying the land in question at 143rd Street, as the property already is annexed and zoned. Nevertheless, Colarelli wanted to see the results of the study before making a decision.

"I think we have a responsibility to our residents to make sure that we have all the facts before we move forward on this project," Colarelli said.

Soon after, applause erupted from the audience. Murphy rebuked those who applauded.

"I'm going to clear the room if you do that again," he said.

At the beginning of the meeting, Murphy had warned the crowd that the room would be emptied, and the meeting restarted, if there was disorderly conduct.

 

Among his fellow aldermen, Colarelli had enough votes to delay the issue. For a brief time, it appeared his motion had passed 4-3.

Voting to delay the proposal were Colarelli, Mike Kelley, Brian Smith and Joseph Fracaro. Voting no were Collier, Dev Trivedi and Bob Morris.

Murphy also uttered a no vote. However, there was uncertainty over whether the mayor could vote in this situation.

Under the notion that Murphy could not vote and that Colarelli had gotten his delay, many audience members got up from their seats and began leaving. Murphy and the council moved on.

But then, in another twist, debate began over whether Murphy, as mayor, actually could vote.

If he could, then his no vote would bring the council to a 4-4 tie. Colarelli's motion would fail because of the deadlock.

City Attorney Ron Caneva then researched state law concerning the mayoral voting issue.

Caneva concluded that the mayor can vote if one half of the elected aldermen have voted in favor of the motion, even though there is no tie vote.

So Murphy -- who usually votes to break ties -- voted in this case to create a tie.

With the council vote tied and Colarelli's motion having failed, a new motion was made to approve the warehouse plan.

The vote to approve was 6-2. Voting no were Colarelli and Fracaro. Voting yes were Kelley, Trivedi, Morris, Smith, Collier and Murphy.

An eighth alderman, Tom Kelly, was not present.

 

During the debate, Murphy strongly disagreed with Colarelli's effort to table the vote.

"We're going to look like communities that pull the rug out from underneath developers that have worked in coordination with the city and have legal, binding annexation agreements," Murphy said. "And you know what those communities have? They have no growth at all. And they have no sales tax dollars."