New Football Stadium Project At Joliet Catholic Academy Finally Ready To Move Forward

JOLIET, IL — It has been five months since the city of Joliet yanked the Joliet Catholic Academy's multi-million dollar proposed new football stadium off the city's zoning board agenda. The project was supposed to be moved to the June 19 meeting agenda, but at no point in June, July, August and September did JCA's plans for a new football stadium go before city officials for review.

However, now that summer is over and fall high school football is here, JCA representatives are desiring to get their project back in the spotlight.

This week, Joliet Catholic Academy sent around a social media post letting people know about a neighborhood town hall meeting that will take place in one week. The event will be on Wednesday, Sept. 24 and go from 6 to 7 p.m. inside the JCA Mary, Our Sister Chapel, 1200 N. Larkin Ave.

People are urged to park in front of the JCA main entrance on Larkin Avenue.

"The JCA administration cordially invites you to attend a presentation on JCA's strategic plan and construction of a multi-sport stadium on the former Our Lady of Angels property," the social media post reads.

Back on April 10, 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. The Joliet Catholic Academy project would renovate several existing fields, while also making substantial improvements to the Our Lady of Angels property for construction of a new football field and eight new tennis courts.

According to the documents, JCA believes the multipurpose athletic field will have a capacity between 6,000 and 7,000 people, with 5,500 seats.

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 city staff, Joliet Catholic will need a special use permit in order to proceed with the construction project.

However, rather than discuss the football stadium project at the April meeting of the city's board of zoning, Joliet City Hall officials decided to remove the athletic stadium project from the meeting agenda. 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."

Although the document read that "staff and the petitioner are requesting that this agenda item be tabled to the June 19 meeting," Joliet's zoning board did not review the JCA football stadium at any of its meetings in June, July and August. The project did not make the agenda for the Thursday, Sept. 18 meeting, either.

Separately, last spring, Joliet Patch 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 currently 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.