Kane panel won't recommend drug treatment facility
A key Kane County advisory panel Tuesday night voted 3-3 on a recommendation for a controversial 120-bed drug treatment facility proposed for a former boys school near the village of Campton Hills.
The proposal from Maxxam Partners needed five "yes" votes to be considered as an affirmative recommendation to the full Kane County Board, which has the final say.
The plan will next move to the county board's Development Committee on March 21, then the full county board at 9:45 a.m. April 11. Zoning board members Ann Michalsen, Marguerite Millen and Tracy Aris voted in favor of the plan; board members Marc Falk, Mary Lake and Wendy Meglin voted against it.
Michalsen said Maxxam Managing Director Steven Marco made a "poor choice" during his January testimony when he repeatedly said "no comment" to questions posed by residents about the safety and operations of the facility. Still, she said she would consider the proposal as a whole and that the perception the facility would hurt property values was unfair.
"This is not a correctional facility," Michalsen said. "I don't think people who are paying $1,000 a day for treatment are going to rob houses."
Meglin said the proposal was a potentially good use of the property but said she didn't feel comfortable with its operations. "This is supposed to be a high-end, luxury facility, but we don't know if there's going to a doctor there 40 hours a week."
The zoning board also has recommended limiting the maximum number of patients there to 75 instead of the previously discussed 96.
Residents living near the former Glenwood School, 41W400 Silver Glen Road, which has been vacant since 2012, say the facility will hurt property values, put the community at risk and overburden existing emergency services with calls for recovering patients there.
The proposal from Maxxam Partners was shot down in February 2016, but officials again considered plan back late last year in the face of a potential $68 million lawsuit against the county for failing to give "reasonable accommodations" for people with the disability of drug addiction.