Legal opinions could threaten drug treatment center plan near Campton Hills
Nearly all of the new reasons to reconsider a new drug treatment facility near Campton Hills fell victim to legal opinions ruling them unenforceable Tuesday.
Kane County Board Attorney Patrick Kinnally said discussions with the Kane County state's attorney's office showed that six of the nine promises are not, or likely not, legally enforceable. That means if Maxxam Partners LLC reneges on any of the promises, there's nothing the county or anyone else could do about it.
Specifically, county officials say, there is no legal way to stop the proposed facility from offering outpatient treatment for people needing methadone. There also is no way to restrict the facility from accepting Medicare or Medicaid patients, stop Maxxam from selling the facility or property, to ensure Maxxam will pursue accreditation of the establishment, or to force Maxxam to pay costs and recovery fees associated with caring for and transporting patients who need emergency medical services.
Maxxam Partners Managing Director Steven Marco made all those promises at several points during his testimony to the zoning board at a previous meeting.
"Our intent is not to sell this to some cheap operator," Marco said at the previous hearing. "We're not going to give it to someone who is going to turn it into a prison. The last thing we want to do is harm the community in any way. We want to do whatever we can to assure the community this is going to be something great. We stand by that condition list."
The promises are the reasons Maxxam offered for reconsidering the denial of a permit for the drug treatment facility early last year.
If the state's attorney's legal opinions nullify the new promises, there would be only three new reasons left to reconsider the plan.
Maxxam promised not to expand the facility with any new buildings or infrastructure. The current plan calls for treatment of up to 120 patients in the buildings that already exist on the former Glenwood Academy campus. Kinnally said the Maxxam would need permission from the county to expand the property in any way.
Maxxam also promised, for the first time, to provide a detailed security plan for the facility. Marco, in his testimony, also expressed a willingness to install an invisible, electronic fence.
Finally, Maxxam also promised to donate 1,000 doses of Narcan - an opioid overdose reversal drug - to Kane County each year for 10 years.
The bulk of testimony Tuesday focused on the impact of the proposed drug treatment facility on local emergency response services. The true impact proved elusive to determine; Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District personnel testified they had no study to support its earlier estimate of 120 additional emergency response calls to the facility. Fire Chief John Nixon said that number is just a best guess. The district handled 1,344 calls last year.
The hearing will continue Thursday evening and focus on comments from the public. Neighbors to the proposed facility have been almost universally opposed to the plan.