Edward wants to buy adjacent houses

Edward Hospital officials are negotiating to buy eight adjacent houses to provide a 250-foot buffer from the rest of the neighborhood when it builds a new bed tower along its southern border.

A rezoning proposal for the entire hospital campus in Naperville was put on hold Tuesday by the city council to give hospital officials and the neighbors 60 days to negotiate a price for the houses. It's estimated it will cost more than $3.5 million to purchase the homes, that's an average of $437,500 per house.

The bed tower would be around eight stories and max out at 120-feet tall, said Kathy West, an attorney for the hospital.

Hospital officials have been fighting the rezoning proposal because current zoning allows unimpeded construction of any height on the campus. They want the bed tower to meet increasing demands. It has to be built at the proposed site, they said, because of proximity to existing hospital services. They said the project is needed no matter what occurs at the state regulatory level regarding the hospital's proposal to build a new hospital campus in Plainfield.

"It was never a matter of if, but when," said Lou Mastro, Edward's vice president of construction. "We are the highest occupied hospital in the state."

Residents have been vocal about their support of the rezoning effort because under current zoning the tower could be built within a few feet of the property line.

The council will bring back the issue at its Oct. 16 meeting to check on the process being made regarding negotiating prices.

One homeowner said all the property owners have hired individual attorneys to deal with the hospital's offer.

Homeowner Phillip Kapella said he wants the process expedited since his property value is decreasing because of the hospital's plans.

"The appraised value of our home has gone down 10 percent in the last 45 days," he said. "Waiting is in the economic interest of the hospital."

Councilman Richard Furstenau echoed Kapela's concerns, saying the affected property values would "plummet" if the council didn't act.

"We need to keep both sides' feet to the fire and since the hospital has changed its mind and they said they want to build on that site regardless of what happens with Plainfield we need to get this things zoned properly," Councilman James Boyajian said.

Hospital officials said they would have written offers on the eight properties by the Oct. 16 council meeting.