For patients and visitors who have circled Elmhurst Hospital’s lots looking for a parking spot, relief is, if not in sight, at least in the planning stages in the form of a five-story, 525-stall parking deck on the north side of the hospital’s campus.
Elmhurst aldermen on the city’s Development, Planning and Zoning Committee Monday heard plans from hospital officials calling for the structure to be built parallel to Harvard Street, roughly opposite the southwest corner of Harvard Street and Kendall Avenue.
Subject to city approval, the proposal moves forward as a planned unit development, which adds extra steps before the plan goes to the city’s Zoning and Planning Commission.
Those extra steps include this week’s discussion, a review by aldermen on the Development Committee and a required meeting with neighbors. That meeting is set for 7 to 9 p.m. March 4 at the hospital.
Hospital officials said this week they hope to begin construction this May and complete the project by spring of next year.
Ald. Michael Honquest, committee chairman, said the planned unit development process is relatively new for the city, as well as for applicants like the hospital. He and committee members Aldermen Bob Dunn and Mark Mulliner heard details of the plan and asked about various aspects of the project.
Hospital representatives said the structure will be cast in place with the exterior being precast concrete. The exterior materials and design will match the existing hospital building, representatives said. The top parking surface will be about 45 feet high.
Access to the garage will be from Harvard Street as well as from the north end of the campus.
Mulliner asked about plans for managing stormwater on the site. Hospital officials said the new garage will add very little impervious surface to the overall campus. However, stormwater management provisions are already in place for excess capacity to cover the increased impervious surface, they said.
Dunn asked why extra parking spots are needed. Officials said the existing lots don’t provide enough spaces for present traffic, a situation that happens several times every day. It’s not reasonable, they say, for visitors, patients and other users to search over the 54-acre campus for parking. A formal parking study is expected to be available for the March 4 meeting with neighbors.
Hospital officials noted that growing visits to the Center for Health on the east side of the campus for outpatient procedures, rehabilitation and doctor visits have created additional parking demand.
Mayor Steve Morley, who sat in on Monday’s meeting, said he was familiar with the shortage of spaces.
“I can never find a spot in the parking lot east of the Center (for Health),” Morley said. “I get it, it’s about convenience and safety.”
Plans are in place to ease parking problems during construction, hospital officials said.
Those plans include having staff park in the hospital’s existing Lot 3, at the northwest corner of Harvard and Kirk Avenue. Shuttle service is also being arranged to temporary daytime parking in lots on the Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, 149 W. Brush Hill Rd., west of the hospital campus.
Mark Hoffman of Edward-Elmhurst Health, said the intent is to minimize traffic through the neighborhood around the hospital.
Following the meeting with neighbors, the proposed project will go to the city’s Zoning and Planning Commission for an April public hearing.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
