Elmhurst Nursing Home Permit To Be Revoked: Official

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst plans to revoke the permit for a nursing home to expand because the facility appears to have abandoned the project, a city official said in correspondence earlier this month.

In April 2018, the city issued the expansion permit to Elmhurst Extended Care Center, 200 E. Lake St., and has issued extensions since then. The latest one expired in November.

In an email in early March, Eileen Franz, the city planner and zoning administrator, wrote to the nursing home's administrator, Love Dave, asking for an update on the status of the project. A few days later, he told her he would report back the next week. He did not.

This week, resident Jay McNichols, who lives next to the planned expansion and opposes it, received a response to his latest public records request to the city. It included an April 8 letter from Franz to the nursing home.

In the letter, Franz said city staff attempted to contact Dave by phone for two weeks for an update on the project's progress, but he did not return the calls.

"The City is very concerned as to the status of your project as it appears that you have abandoned the conditional use permit; we have not heard anything from you and we have not observed any work being performed at the property," Franz said. "The City intends to take all necessary action to revoke your conditional use as an apparent lack of progress towards implementing the conditional use. Please contact me as soon as possible to discuss next steps."

A day later, Scott Day, apparently the attorney for the family-owned nursing home, emailed Franz, "Thanks for keeping me posted. I will discuss with the family and respond in writing."

As of Monday, the nursing home apparently had not followed up with any more communications.

The city's recent letter appears to be a shift in position from last November when the city deemed the project "substantially under way," even though no construction had begun. Ward 3 Alderman Michael Bram, who represents the neighborhood in question, has pressed the city for answers on the project's status.

In response to an email from Bram in February, City Manager Jim Grabowski noted Mayor Steve Morley asked aldermen about their thoughts on how to handle the nursing home project during a closed session in November.

A majority of aldermen agreed with the city attorney that the nursing home had met the "substantially under way" standard because of the amount of money spent on building drawings, purchase of a building permit and the erection of a construction fence, among other things, Grabowski said.

At the end of this month, Bram's term as an alderman expires. On April 6, Bram ran for mayor and lost to Alderman Scott Levin. Levin's ascension may not be any better for the nursing home. In an April 2020 meeting, Levin expressed concern with the repeated delays in the expansion. But he voted with a 9-3 majority to approve a six-month extension.

The nursing home's administrator, Dave, did not return a Patch message from last week.

During an interview in May 2019, Dave told Patch the expansion depended on how "everything shakes out" with the coronavirus.

According to Medicare's website, Elmhurst Extended Care is rated "above average" overall. The home started in 1960.