Residents Concerned About Flood Control At New Advocate Christ Expansion

Oak Lawn's Planning and Development Commission approved a setback variation on Tuesday for the construction of Advocate Christ Medical Center's new ambulatory building at 4440 W. 95th St.--but not without a few questions from residents, first.

Construction of the ambulatory building's parking garage is slated to begin this fall, but after flooding problems that have plagued Oak Lawn this spring, residents expressed  about what methods of flood control the medical center will be taking.

“Due to what happened during the last rainfall [on June 9], we're asking that some of us be allowed to look at the flood control measures that you're planning on putting in,” resident Deborah Fagan said.

Patrick Lyons, a representative of Advocate Christ, stated that such a concern was not related to the evening's discussion of the height variation but emphasized that the medical center has employed and will continued to employ an open-door policy regarding the construction planning process.

In response to Fagan's concern, however, Lyons explained that water detention will be under the parking lot across the street from the ambulatory building.

Any non-porous area has to have the amount of water that it can retain stored in a different location, where it will slowly flow into the sewer system.

The parking garage will be six levels high and hold about 640 cars.

Advocate Christ's new ambulatory center and parking garage is the largest construction project in terms of value and size to come to Oak Lawn in the last 50 years. The total price tag for the medical center expansion is $200 million.