Why parking key in Naperville medical office expansion plans
A medical office expansion in Naperville could hinge on how close some parking spaces would need to be to Ogden Avenue.
DuPage Medical Group wants to nearly double the size of its building at 808 Rickert Drive to offer expanded radiology, primary care, obstetrics and gynecology at a 26,500-square-foot facility it has operated since 2007.
The company bought the property to the north, where a hair salon and cell tower sit at 2052 W. Ogden Ave., and plans to use that land to build a 21,000-square-foot addition and more parking.
But in order to find room for the 238 parking spaces Naperville's zoning code requires, some of them would have to be 10 feet away from Ogden - which is 10 feet closer than the code allows. The encroachment onto an area that's supposed to be a landscaped buffer drew a 5-3 "no" vote from the planning and zoning commission March 15.
"What I see coming around the corner there is a parking lot," commission member Carrie Hansen said, "and that's not necessarily what I would like to see."
Aesthetics and safety drove disapproval of the parking request from planning and zoning commission members.
Hansen said the 20-foot setback requirement exists for a reason - to help clean up the look and feel of Ogden Avenue, a busy commercial corridor. She said DuPage Medical Group's plan to demolish the former Simply Hair salon offers a chance to beautify a stretch of Ogden frontage, a chance the city would pass up if it allows parking to be built 10 feet from the road.
Planning and zoning commission Chairwoman Kamala Martinez questioned whether it's safe to have parking so close to a busy road. Some parking spots for the hair salon are separated from Ogden by 10 feet now, but Martinez and the majority of commissioners said they don't want it to stay that way.
Diane Menza, representing DMG Real Estate LLC, said it's key to offer enough parking for patients of the new services planned for the building, along with those using specialties already offered, which include audiology; radiology; ophthalmology; lab services; a sleep center; ear, nose and throat services; and facial, plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Because of the addition's size, the building needs 96 more spaces than the 142 it currently offers.
Architects said the location of stormwater storage and the cell tower on the site, plus the "odd geometry" of the property, thwarted attempts to keep all parking 20 feet away from Ogden. To follow the requirement, they said, the site would lose at least 15 spaces.
Architects also had to decrease the width of a parking aisle drive from 26 feet to 24 feet, but that drew no opposition from the commission.
The city council will take up the matter during its meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the municipal center at 400 S. Eagle St.
Council consideration also will involve several other technical approvals the project would need to go forward. These include rezoning of the lot on Ogden Avenue to a designation for office, commercial and industrial uses, establishment of the combined site as a planned unit development and approval of a plat of subdivision.