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Des Plaines denies rehab center expansion

The Des Plaines city council Monday night denied a rehabilitation center’s request to add more beds to its facility after neighbors raised concerns about parking and increased traffic.

The facility, operated by NeuroRestorative of Carbondale, Ill., at 820 Berkshire in the city’s 7th Ward, currently has five beds serving patients with spinal cord and brain injuries. The proposal before the city council was for a conditional use permit to increase its capacity to eight beds.

Neighbor Candy Cole said while the facility provides an invaluable service and great care to its patients, the neighborhood cannot sustain so much traffic.

“They should find another piece of property like the facility in Carbondale,” Cole said. “I am vehemently against increasing the amount of residents and/or patient care that is given at this home on Berkshire.”

The property is located in a single-family residential district and was established as a small residential care home with five or fewer beds allowed under current zoning regulations. The home has an attached garage, driveway and is in a cul-de-sac.

The city’s zoning board of appeals recommended 5-1 that the facility’s expansion to eight beds be approved under the condition that the applicant provide off-site parking for staff to address neighbors’ concerns raised at an earlier hearing, said Scott Magnum, the city’s senior planner.

“The International Building Code really draws a line at five (people)” in a residential home,” said Mike Bartholomew, Des Plaines director of community and economic development. “Once you get over five it moves it into an institutional use group. Five is typically what you would see in a residential setting.”

Ward 7 Alderman Dan Wilson said neighbors have complained about staff and visitors parking cars on the street that at times reached up to 14 cars parked in the cul-de-sac. If the facility is allowed to expand, the parking problem would only worsen, he added.

“When (the facility) first came in, it was presented to the residents, as a facility to handle brain-injured adults on respirators, which wasn’t true,” Wilson said. “I have two other residential facilities in my ward and in fact you wouldn’t know they were there. That’s not quite the case here. The residents are up and around the neighborhood. They have visitors and they go through therapy so there is a lot of traffic that comes in and out of this facility. So basically what we wound up with is a business doing business in a residential neighborhood.”

The facility operator did propose a plan to lease an off-site parking lot for staff, but city officials didn’t think it would resolve the problem.

“I think we’re at the maximum capacity now based on what I see from the outside,” 5th Ward Alderman Jim Brookman said. “I think any expansion will just logically, in time, bring more parking problems, and off-site parking, I don’t have a lot of confidence in that. We can’t enforce off-site parking day-by-day. I think that any further expansion would harm the neighborhood.”

Steve Miller, NeuroRestorative’s facilities operations director, said the facility has been in Des Plaines nearly a year-and-a-half and has had to turn away prospective clients. Some of the facility’s patients are injured war veterans.

“That house is a very large house and fully capable of serving with eight beds,” he said

Several aldermen suggested the facility operator buy another property, or take over a foreclosed home to expand.

Miller said the group chose Des Plaines because of the city’s welcoming attitude toward people with disabilities. Miller said the group is considering leasing a property off Wolf Road for a physical and occupational therapy lab.

“We are heavily in pursuit of another project here in Des Plaines. We are also considering other neighborhoods outside of Des Plaines,” he said.