Joe Hooker

Joseph Hooker received a Juris Doctor in 1977 and a Master of Urban Planning in 1991 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked as a planner for the City of Urbana, Illinois and was a municipal attorney with the City of Champaign, Illinois from May of 1996 until his retirement from that position in December of 2016. As a municipal attorney, he provided legal advice to the City's Planning Department, its Plan Commission, and its Zoning Board of Appeals. He was also the primary attorney for the city in its role as lead agency for a coalition of local governments in Central Illinois that successfully opposed the citing of a toxic substances landfill near Clinton, Illinois, over the Mahomet Aquifer. This coalition successfully petitioned the U.S. EPA for a Sole Source Aquifer designation. He has presented on numerous topics at planning and legal seminars in Illinois, including the law of eminent domain, the law of nuisance abatement, and the law of annexation agreements. He has continued to participate in various grass roots efforts to enhance protections of the Mahomet Aquifer and to address other environmental concerns in the region.