Will County Adopts Fairmont Neighborhood Plan Update After Four Postponements

Will County Board | September 17, 2026

Article Summary: The Will County Board on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, adopted the Fairmont Neighborhood Plan Update into the county’s Land Resource Management Plan with 21 votes in the affirmative, closing out a resolution that had been postponed at three consecutive board meetings and rerouted through a public hearing — and capping a two-year community engagement effort in which residents ranked flood reduction, streetlights and sidewalks their top needs.

Fairmont Neighborhood Plan Key Points:

• Resolution 26-062 / 25-3937-02 adopts the “Fairmont Neighborhood Plan Update,” effective immediately, amending the Fairmont Neighborhood Plan adopted in 2012 under Resolution 12-98 within the Land Resource Management Plan adopted in 2002 under Resolution 02-141, pursuant to the Local Land Resource Management Plan Act, 50 ILCS 805.
• The item was recommended for scheduling Sept. 4, 2025, cleared the Land Use & Development Committee 6-0 on Nov. 6, 2025, was pulled from the Dec. 18, 2025, board agenda for a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, and was then postponed at the May 21, July 16 and Aug. 20, 2026, board meetings.
• The supporting document, “Envision Fairmont,” reports 95 completed surveys, three outreach events and a church listening session; county figures show $1.8 million spent on drainage improvements and $3.5 million on the water and sewer transfer to the City of Joliet, plus 13 blighted structures demolished since 2012.
• Member Sherry Williams, who grew up in the unincorporated Fairmont area, said the community “has felt neglected over the years.”

WILL COUNTY — The Will County Board on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, adopted an update to the Fairmont Neighborhood Plan, folding the revised document into the county’s Land Resource Management Plan with 21 votes in the affirmative.

Member Sherry Newquist, presenting the Land Use & Development Committee’s items, moved Resolution 26-062 / 25-3937-02; Member Mica Freeman seconded. “We have been looking at this for a while. It got postponed a couple of times,” Newquist said.

The resolution text recites the plan’s lineage. The Local Land Resource Management Plan Act, 50 ILCS 805, allows the county to adopt a land resource management plan; the Will County Board adopted one in 2002 under Resolution 02-141 and adopted the Fairmont Neighborhood Plan in 2012 under Resolution 12-98. The act calls for “a system and timetable to review and update the plans at least once every 10 years.” The resolution states that the board finds the existing plan “does not fully function optimally to represent the current needs and desires of the citizens of Will County and the Fairmont community specifically,” and that Land Use Department staff and county residents jointly reviewed, edited and revised it. Section 1 adopts the revised documents effective immediately; Section 2 states they amend the 2012 plan within the 2002 Land Resource Management Plan; Section 3 is a severability clause.

The item’s path was long. The agenda’s case history records a recommendation to schedule on Sept. 4, 2025; a 6-0 Land Use & Development Committee vote on Nov. 6, 2025, to send it to the board for Dec. 18, 2025; removal from that agenda and referral to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a public hearing; a 6-0 commission approval dated Feb. 3, 2026; and then postponements to the board’s May 21, July 16 and Aug. 20, 2026, meetings. The resolution itself states a public hearing was held Dec. 16, 2025, by the Planning and Zoning Commission, which voted to recommend approval at its conclusion.

A Decade-Old Plan, Reassessed

The supporting document in the agenda packet is “Envision Fairmont: Updating the Fairmont Neighborhood Plan,” prepared by the Community Development Division of the Will County Land Use Department and labeled the Fairmont Neighborhood Plan Addendum 2025. Fairmont is a census-designated place in unincorporated Will County between the City of Lockport and the City of Joliet. The original plan was prepared in 2012 with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and set three objectives, seven goals and 38 implementation strategies.

The addendum documents a community that has changed substantially. Census figures show Fairmont’s population fell from 2,459 in 2010 to 2,389 in 2020, a 2.8% decline, while Will County grew 2.8% over the same decade. The Black or African American population dropped from 1,133 to 768, and the Hispanic or Latino population rose from 555 to 857, making it the largest group in the community. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose from $51,875 in 2012 to $59,244 in 2023. Fairmont’s 2022 median housing value was $147,400 against $322,200 countywide, and 16.8% of its 969 housing units were vacant, compared with 4.5% in the county as a whole.

Residents Put Infrastructure First

County staff held three outreach events — June 15, 2024, and Aug. 17, 2024, at the Fairmont Community Center, and Oct. 29, 2024, at the elementary school with the Fairmont School District — followed by a listening session at Shiloh Baptist Church on April 5, 2025, at the request of community stakeholders. The addendum reports that the listening session drew the largest turnout of the process, “nearly matching the total of the first three events combined.”

A postcard with a QR code linking to the survey went to every household in Fairmont, and the survey ran in English and Spanish with translators present at events. Ninety-five surveys were completed. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they had been unaware of the original plan.

Asked to rank the 2012 plan’s three objectives, respondents gave improved infrastructure 69 first-choice votes, bringing new growth 17, and a stronger sense of identity nine. Among the seven goals, redevelopment of all vacant residential parcels drew 36 first-choice votes. In a paired-choice exercise at the second event, flood reduction was selected 47 times, ahead of clean drinking water at 33 and low crime rates at 32. In a second activity in which 20 participants distributed five pennies each among possible amenities, fewer flooding events drew 19 and streetlamps 18. Asked for one word describing Fairmont, respondents most often said “home,” “family” and “community,” though “forgotten,” “underfunded” and “neglected” also appear in the published word cloud.

What Has Been Done, and What Comes Next

The addendum catalogs completed work: the transfer of all Fairmont water and sewer service to the jurisdiction of the City of Joliet, with all plots now able to connect to city services; 13 blighted structures demolished since 2012; three sidewalks placed around the Fairmont School through the Safe Routes to School grant; a lift station to reduce flooding; new equipment at A.F. Hill Park; consolidated garbage service; designated clean-up days with large dumpsters; and the We Will Grow community garden program, which the document says has provided raised garden beds benefiting 24 seniors. A technical study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with Lockport Township examined flood-prone areas.

In its implementation strategies appendix, the county reports that “to date $1.8M has been spent on drainage improvements and $3.5M has been spent on water and sewer transfer,” and that results of the Army Corps stormwater study “will help inform next steps for ARPA funding.” A faith-based community development corporation, housed at Shiloh Baptist Church, is listed as in creation as of 2025.

The addendum adds four new goals — beautifying Fairmont through cleanups, aesthetics and code enforcement; improving community engagement through more events; improving information dispersal, possibly through a newsletter or social media account; and modernizing utilities and utility equipment. Its 2025 action plan assigns underground sewer line work to the Army Corps and Lockport Township on a two- to three-year timeframe, flood reduction measures on a two- to five-year timeframe, a community marker sign in one to two years, and streetlight installation and traffic control to the Lockport Township Highway Department with timing listed as to be determined. Sidewalk creation is deferred until sewer infrastructure problems are resolved.

Board Discussion

Member Judy Ogalla urged colleagues to watch the consultants’ presentation on the county’s land resource management plan work delivered to the Land Use & Development Committee. “They gave multiple slides. So I suggest that you look at the land use agenda to see what that presentation was,” she said. “Kind of what I think is important actually turned out to be some of the top priorities that everyone who participated in the group thought was important, such as protecting open space, natural lands, and preserving our agricultural lands.”

Ogalla said she had asked the consultants to treat the county’s threatened agricultural land mass as a priority: “Will County has a huge land mass of agricultural area that is really threatened, and we need to make that a priority.” She said rural townships had told the consultants the survey questions “were not quite appropriate for their needs,” and that the questions have been reworked and the consultants are returning to those townships “so we can get a good feel for what the rural small townships think about and what their needs are.”

Member Steve Balich said he had watched the same presentation and agreed it was informative, but said it did not address the permitting delays he had raised at Executive Committee. “It takes forever to get the permits to do things and that’s why people aren’t coming,” he said. “I’ve been getting calls all week about problems. So I tell them to call the land use. But there’s a reason why we’re losing business here.” Bertino-Tarrant told him the Fairmont plan was a separate topic — “This is just the Fairmont” — and that the permitting issue belonged in committee. Balich noted he had already raised it there.

Democratic Leader Sherry Williams closed the discussion. “I’m happy to see the Fairmont community getting the attention, because so many times this community has felt neglected over the years,” she said. “I grew up in the Fairmont area. It’s unincorporated and there’s a lot of issues there. So it’s good that the county is starting to address some of those issues, and I know that they really do appreciate it.”

Permitting also surfaces in the board’s own strategic plan, adopted later in the same meeting, which lists completing “the land use and permitting diagnosis” among nine first-year items on the stated grounds that a diagnosis must precede any redesign.

The next Land Use & Development Committee meeting is scheduled for Oct. 1, 2026.