Citing an increased need for parking and an effort to keep traffic on its campus, Rush Oak Park Hospital sought and received approval to build a new parking garage and rezone specific parts of its property.
The Oak Park village board approved several matters related to the hospital at its Feb. 1 meeting, one of which allows the hospital to build a 7-level, 713-space parking structure at its northeast side. The garage will be built at the site of a current surface parking lot at the northwest corner of Monroe Street and Wenonah Avenue.
“Really, the residents of Oak Park are increasingly getting their medical needs at Rush Oak Park,” trustee Dan Moroney said. “With all this success, there’s a need to grow and expand their facilities and increase their parking capacity. For better or worse, we are a landlocked community. They have to work within the limitations of their immediate vicinity. While I’m sympathetic [to local residents], I just feel our job as a municipal government is to be a partner with Rush Oak Park and see to it that their operation can really achieve its fullest potential.”
During a review by the village’s plan commission, Rush originally proposed the 7-level structure that would stand 64 feet, 8 inches tall. To address resident concerns, the commission recommended one level be removed and the structure top out at about 54 feet in height.
The village board was presented with two ordinances to consider for approval, one for the full 7-level garage and one for the shorter 6-level structure.
“The idea of reducing the parking capacity by 15% because someone pulled that number out of a hat does not make sense to me,” Mayor Anan Abu Taleb said. “I understand the concerns of the neighbors, but one can’t have everything.”
Neighbors were opposed
A group of nearly 80 residents living near the hospital collectively wrote to the village board and urged the proposal to be voted down, saying the hospital “has not been a good neighbor,” and has been encroaching into the neighborhood for decades.
After the initial garage proposal was tabled by the village plan commission, the neighbors did meet with hospital officials several times in order to find a compromise on the parking garage design.
“These meetings were productive, resulting in a revised proposal that significantly mitigates several negative effects,” the statement read. “It still is too tall and its massive bulk is out-of-character to surrounding single-family homes. Residents must have a seat at the table and their needs must hold equal value to the hospital’s needs.”
Rush Oak Park Vice President Robert Spadoni, who has been with the hospital for five years, acknowledged there has been “bad blood” in the past between Rush and its neighbors.
“I can’t solve that,” Spadoni said. “I can do it moving forward and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. We’re trying to create a campus and the idea of the campus is to keep traffic out of the neighborhood. I drove around today and there were cars all over the streets in the residential neighborhood. I’m trying to help solve the problem.”
Board members ultimately approved the parking garage plan by a 5-1 vote.
“I get my health care there,” trustee Simone Boutet said. “When I go there, I know I’m going to be late because I’m going to be driving in circles looking for parking. We had some demands of the village board to alleviate parking on those [residential] blocks a year or two ago. It’s always very threatening when something changes in your neighborhood. We just don’t have anywhere to go in a dense community.”
Trustee Susan Buchanan cast the lone no vote, while trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla was absent.
“I sympathize with the neighbors,” Buchanan said. “I think some trust was lost, according to them, by the initial process a year ago when the parking garage plan came in front of the plan commission and the neighbors hadn’t been involved at all. I’m amazed how much developers and the hospital are willing to change their plans. I appreciate the neighbors and I’m also sympathetic to their desires. I favor the plan commission recommendation. If the hospital can do it with one less floor, that’s what I’d be in favor of.”
Vacant homes rezoned
In addition, the village board unanimously approved vacating a portion of Monroe Street, which officials say will keep cars heading west into the hospital’s campus and away from the residential neighborhoods to its east and south.
Trustees also unanimously approved the rezoning of several residential buildings the hospital owns from 601-615 S. Maple Ave. from residential to hospital zoning.
Rush Oak Park acquired the properties over the course of several years, and inherited the leases of residents who were living inside the buildings. The last resident left last spring when the final lease expired, Spadoni said.
“We are a hospital and we’re not in the business of leasing residential units out,” Spadoni said. “It’s another long-term act of trying to create our campus. All are vacant. We have to maintain them. Right now we’re shoveling all the sidewalks, salting and maintaining them with heat. It’s just an expense we don’t need to have.”
The properties sit at the hospital campus’ southwest corner and are expected to be demolished in the near future. Hospital officials said the parcels will likely be redeveloped, but those plans have yet to be designed.
sschering@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter: @steveschering
