Eden Supportive Living Gets by Plan Commission Again

The heads of Eden Supportive Living were back at the Plan Commission Wednesday night responding to the village's concerns and suggestions with Eden’s application for a special use permit to operate an assisted living facility at Washington Square property at 10 N. Washington St.

By a 4-3 vote, the commission gave its support to Eden’s applications for a special use permit for a planned development, a special use permit for a personal care facility, and a special use permit for a senior housing facility.

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Founder Mitch Hamblet spoke on behalf of Eden and said the planned facility would only house residents age 55 and older, all with physical disabilities. That’s a change from a prior plan to accept people as young as 22, which was .

Hamblet also responded to a village request for detailed information regarding market demand for an assisted living facility in Hinsdale and to the potential increased use of emergency medical services, two other concerns expressed in Cauley's letter. 

In response to the former, Hamblet said there is no assisted living facility in Hinsdale and that most of those in nearby towns have little space available.

Hamblet said there are currently 10 area assisted living facilities that contain 630 assisted living units. According to Eden's calculations, there are approximately 13,400 to 13,500 potential Eden residents in the area, based on the 55-plus with disability criteria. The existing units can only hold nine percent of the potential residents. 

"Eden Supportive Living would only need one percent of that to fill," Hamblet said.

For the emergency services, Hamblet volunteered a donation equivalent to half of a new ambulance for the village—a sum between $112,000 and $115,000.  

Hamblet addressed other items brought up in Cauley's letter. He showed pictures of what units would look like at Eden and detailed amenities such as accessible bathrooms and aesthetically pleasing kitchens and common areas. 

Regarding rate discounts and waiting list preference for Hinsdale residents, another of Cauley's suggestions, Hamblet said they're willing to work with the village as long as Eden meets its legal obligations under the Fair Housing Act. 

Eden did not get the support of commission chair Neale Byrnes or of commissioners Julie Crnovich and Luke Stifflear. The three were not convinced the permits were acceptable under the village's zoning code, particularly because the proposed development does not meet the code's density requirement, which says that for every unit a development contains, the property must have at least 2,000 square feet of space.

According to village documents, the Washington Square site is 42,400 square feet and Eden plans to have over 70 units, which gives an average around 600 square feet per unit. 

"Unless there’s a way around that," Crnovich said of the density provision, "I’m sorry I just I can’t vote in favor of this."

New commissioner Steve Cashman, who is an architect, said that the building is very properly scaled and voted in support of Eden.

"I’ve never felt as a citizen or as an architect that there was a problem with density on this site," Cashman said.

Commissioner Michael Nelson said also voted in support of Eden and said the applicant addressed key concerns of the village such as age range and lack of green space.

"We’re using a facility that exists in the village," Nelson said. "It’s going to look better than it has; it's not going to be a safety issue anymore. I continue to believe this is something we need to move forward as quickly as possible." 

Village planner Sean Gascoigne said next up for Eden is a July 25 Zoning and Public Safety Committee hearing. The Plan Commission would then potentially vote to adopt and finalize its findings Wednesday during an Aug. 10 meeting before the application would go to the Board of Trustees Aug. 16 for the deciding vote.  

Eden had Plan Commission hearings in April and May before heading to the Board of Trustees June 21. There, to clear up several concerns the board had.