Lockport Approves $2M Chevron House Order Arrangement

LOCKPORT, IL — The Lockport Town Council has authorized a obtain and sale settlement for 181 acres from the Chevron Environmental Management Organization for $2 million. The house is situated at 301 W. Second St., and was the former web page of Texaco refinery.

According to council paperwork, Texaco ceased functions on the land in 1981, and Chevron has expended almost $500 million to thoroughly clean the web-site.

The town previously obtained 13 acres of land from Chevron as element of a residence trade settlement in 2017, council files state.

Immediately after clear-up of the web page, Chevron has marketed the assets as a organization park, and in November 2020, Chevron set the 181 acres up for auction. In accordance to council of the complete minutes from Feb. 17, a logistics firm has expressed interest in the property, and almost procured it when the property was put up for auction.

According to council files, with the city’s buy of the home, the town can have greater manage more than the home and make certain enhancement is a lot more reliable with Lockport’s downtown place.

Metropolis Administrator Ben Benson explained the prepare for the land wants to be revisited.

“We want [the plan] to be a group final decision,” Benson reported. “We can make your mind up to have it be open up lands, choose to have some manufacturing in there, you can find a lot of points we can do.”

There are even now lively checking drinking water wells on the internet site, even soon after clean up-up of contaminated soil. Chevron is seeking final No Even further Action letters from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency pertaining to the groundwater.

Chevron would even now be liable for any off-web page contamination or groundwater contamination, even after the residence is offered, Town Legal professional Sonni Williams reported.

“If anything transpires, IEPA still has the capacity to go soon after Chevron,” Williams explained.

Council files point out that the town has the income reserves to buy the property without the need of any extra funding or bonds, and it could use TIF funds for particular suitable expenditures, like environmental overview fees or outside lawyer costs.

The metropolis council permitted the invest in arrangement, with Alderwoman Catherine Perretta as the sole ‘no’ vote. Alderman Mark Lobes was absent.

“We have now experienced 13 acres that we’ve had for 4 decades, and we haven’t carried out anything at all with that, and now we are heading to purchase more land and we will not genuinely have a 10-12 months program penned out,” Perretta said before voting no on the undertaking.

“My worry is I never want to see this land sitting for 10 additional several years undeveloped,” she stated.

Mayor Steve Streit claimed in a cellular phone connect with with Patch that several tasks have approached Chevron in past decades, such as a distribution centre and a trucking depot.

Chevron wasn’t interested in promoting the property in more compact chunks, but desired to promote it as a complete. The metropolis has the versatility to produce the house the way they want to, Streit stated.

“I might relatively see the town regulate it, and we can build it in a way that is valuable to the city,” he reported.

Closing on the assets will just take location by March 31.