Politics & Government

Village Approves Advocate Christ Expansion

Medical center officials reveal parking garage will be six levels.

The Oak Lawn Village Board gave its blessing to Advocate Christ Medical Center to proceed with its plans to start building a new ambulatory center on the southwest portion of its medical campus.

Village Manager Larry Deetjen lauded the project as a 50-year milestone, saying it was the largest construction project in terms of value and size. The total price tag for the medical center’s expansion is $200 million.

Trustees passed several ordinances and variations for special use, parking and building height at Tuesday’s village board meeting.

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Advocate Christ officials also revealed Tuesday that the parking garage would be six levels.

“I’ve gotten residents’ concerns—and rightly so—about how much of a view or sun is going to be knocked out of a person’s house,” Trustee Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2) said.

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“I’m sure we can work that out. I would hope there would be some issues about setbacks,” Olejniczak added.

Trustee Tom Duhig (Dist. 4), whose district encompasses the medical center, said there were still some traffic issues to be worked out by the traffic review commission.

The village has petitioned for a traffic light at 95th Street and Kilbourn from the Illinois Department of Transportation. Some side streets around the medical center will be changed to one-way streets, Duhig said.

Advocate Christ has held and said it would hold monthly meetings with residents for the duration of construction. The medical center also has set up a hotline number for residents to call to report quality of life concerns during construction at 708-684-6397

Mayor Dave Heilmann called it “a nice gesture.”

“Hopefully we can capitalize on your development and find other ways to make things fit,” Heilmann said.

Advocate Christ still needs to obtain approval for the new ambulatory center from Advocate’s corporate board in Oak Brook.


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