Northbrook village board OKs zoning change for medical facility
The Northbrook village board has decided to start a fresh relationship with a medical center on the village's northwest side.
Before the board at its Tuesday meeting was the continuing case of the Eating Recovery Center/Insight, 4201 Lake Cook Rd., which in 2018 had been granted a permit for the inpatient treatment of eating disorders.
An application submitted to Northbrook's Plan Commission for a special permit to also provide adolescent mental health services under a new zoning category of Special Medical Facility was recommended by the commission on Sept. 1, but with it came a number of conditions. They pertained to such things as periodic reviews, patient-staff ratio, limitation on beds in the facility and maintaining an ambulance service.
ERC/Insight accepted all the conditions but one: that it may treat only patients between the ages of 10 and 18, or a patient who turns 19 during treatment on the property.
"Right now we are treating children and adolescents in Northbrook," said Dr. Anne Marie O'Melia, one of three representatives of ERC/Insight attending the meeting via Zoom.
"Over time the needs of our patients may change, and we would like to reserve the right to meet those needs for eating disorder patients by taking care of older patients if that becomes what our patients are needing at the time," she said.
Trustees had to consider that sentiment against history. While still operating as a facility treating eating disorders, in February ERC/Insight was cited for having patients with psychiatric conditions other than eating disorders. It also had a higher number of 911 transports than expected in its early months in Northbrook, officials said.
The facility paid more than $75,000 in costs and penalties for its violation of permit and showed it had contracted with a private ambulance service. It then applied for the new zoning category that would enable it to expand its services.
After the Plan Commission revisited the topic in public hearings in July and August, on Sept. 1 the commission recommended the zoning change with amendments including the specific age range, and forwarded it to trustees for review on Tuesday.
"They have been proven to be untrustworthy from the get-go," an unconvinced resident noted in a public comment during Tuesday's meeting.
The board, after more than an hour had been devoted to the subject and at least one mind had changed, proved to be more generous. The motion to approve the new zoning category - without an age restriction - passed unanimously, 6-0.
In her argument, trustee Kathryn Ciesla began in a tone opposite the ERC cause: "This situation started off really rocky, in March."
She then quickly shifted to a supportive stance that inevitably carried the day.
"There are adults who continue to suffer from eating disorders. There's no reason we should restrict this facility with respect to age. It's an arbitrary restriction, and I suggest to you all it's punitive - it's not rational. They've paid their fine, they've paid. We have to start over with this group of people, so let's do that," she said.