(70 ILCS 1807/20)
Sec. 20.
Duties.
The port district shall have all of the following
duties:
(a) To study the existing harbor plans within the area of the district and
to
recommend to the appropriate governmental agency, including the General
Assembly of Illinois, any changes and modifications that may from time to
time be required by continuing development and to meet changing business and
commercial needs.
(b) To make an investigation of conditions within the area of the district
and to
prepare and adopt a comprehensive plan for the development of port facilities
and intermodal facilities for
the district. In preparing and recommending changes and modifications in
existing
harbor plans or a comprehensive plan for the development of port facilities and
intermodal facilities,
the district
may, if it deems desirable, set aside and allocate an area or areas within the
lands held by
it to be used and operated by the district or leased to private parties for
industrial,
manufacturing, commercial, recreational,
or harbor purposes, where the area or areas
are not, in the opinion of the district, required for its primary purposes in
the
development of intermodal, harbor, and port facilities for the use of public
water and
land
transportation, or will not be immediately needed for those purposes, and where
the
use and operation or leasing will in the opinion
of the district aid and promote the development of intermodal, terminal, and
port
facilities.
(c) To study and make recommendations to the proper authority for the
improvement of terminal, lighterage, wharfage, warehousing, transfer, and other
facilities necessary for the promotion of commerce and the interchange of
traffic within,
to, and from the district.
(d) To study, prepare, and recommend by specific proposals to the General
Assembly changes in the jurisdiction of the district.
(e) To petition any federal, State, municipal, or local authority,
administrative,
judicial, and legislative, having jurisdiction in the district for the adoption
and execution
of any physical improvement, change in method, system of handling freight,
warehousing, docking, lightering, and transfer of freight that, in the opinion
of the
district, may be designed to improve or better the handling of commerce in and
through
the district or improve terminal or transportation facilities within the
district.
(f) To foster, stimulate, and promote the shipment of cargoes and commerce
through ports, whether originating within or without the State of Illinois.
(g) To acquire, construct, own, lease, and develop terminals, wharf
facilities,
piers, docks, warehouses, bulk terminals, grain elevators, tug boats, and other
harbor
crafts, and any other port facility or port-related facility or service that it
finds
necessary and convenient.
(h) To perform any other act or function that may tend to or be useful
toward
development and improvement of harbors, sea ports, and port-related facilities
and
services and to increase foreign and domestic commerce through the harbors and
ports within the port district.
(i) To study and make recommendations for river resources management
and environmental education within the district, including but not limited to,
wetlands
banks, mitigation areas, water retention and sedimentation areas, fish
hatcheries, or
wildlife sanctuaries, natural habitat, and native plant research.
(Source: P.A. 93-262, eff. 7-22-03.)
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