New Football Stadium For Joliet Catholic Academy Meets City Hall Resistance

JOLIET — Last week, Joliet Patch broke the news revealing Joliet Catholic Academy's grand plans to build a new football stadium on the property where the former Our Lady of Angels retirement home was located off Ingalls Avenue and Wyoming Avenue.

In another Joliet Patch exclusive, Joliet Patch has learned that rather than discuss the project at Thursday's 2 p.m. meeting of the city's board of zoning, Joliet City Hall officials have decided to remove the athletic stadium project from the meeting agenda.

On Thursday morning, just hours before the 2 p.m. meeting of Joliet's board of zoning meeting to discuss the JCA football stadium, Joliet Patch obtained a City Hall memo from the planning staff advising the zoning board of appeals of a "TABLING REQUEST."

The document reads that "staff and the petitioner are requesting that this agenda item be tabled to the June 19 meeting."

Joliet Patch has also obtained the Joliet Catholic's annual lease agreement to use Memorial Stadium from the Joliet Park District for its home football games. The agreement shows that JCA current pays the Park District about $14,000 per year, plus additional costs for any playoff games, and that under the terms of the agreement, JCA retains the revenue from any ticket admission sales.

You can read the document at the bottom of this story.

Since the 1950s, Joliet Catholic has played its home football games at the Joliet Park District's Memorial Stadium, at 3000 W. Jefferson St. According to the city of Joliet staff, Joliet Catholic will need a special use permit in order to proceed with the construction project.