Plan Commission Sends Hospital's Master Plan Forward

After five meetings dating back to September of last year and sometimes contentious debate over the building of a replacement facility at N, the unanimously voted Tuesday night to approve the master plan.

The vote was 6-0, and the plan covers three phases starting with the replacement facility and a new medical building by 2017.

The recommendation sends the master plan to the Lake Forest City Council, which could approve the plan at its June 4 meeting.

Plan Commission Chairman Jack Reisenberg said lengthening the process would have only be counterproductive at this point.

“I believe we are at the point of diminishing returns,” he said. “We’re down to the point where we could meet until the end of the year and accomplish very, very little.”

Reisenberg added it’s time to move the process forward or chance the possibility of losing the hospital altogether.

“We have to invest behind this hospital,” he said. “I won’t call it a Rube Goldberg, but it’s probably close. If we don’t make it better, it will continue to deteriorate to the point it will go away.”

• See our previous stories on the hospital expansion project

In approving the master plan, the Plan Commission included 24 conditions that address areas of concern voiced by both residents and commission members, such as the building height, traffic, open spaces and buffers, and land uses.

“They help strike a balance between limitations and flexibility,” said Cathy Czerniak, director of community development for the city of Lake Forest.

Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital President Thomas McAfee noted at the start of his presentation Tuesday night that the master plan was a byproduct of multiple sources of input.

“We have listened,” McAfee said. “We have listened to our neighbors, to the city and to your guidance. We do believe the plan is responsive to those issues. We know how important good health care and education is to any community. We are now in a position where we will be advancing a project that will truly stabilize Lake Forest and Northwestern, and put our hospital in a position to be viable for another 100 years.”

In the area of traffic, the newest changes included:

• Closing the Burton Drive access to the hospital campus

• No alignment of Westmoreland and Chiltern Drive

• Creating a right-turn lane on Deerpath into Westmoreland

• Conducting a post Phase One traffic study

The Plan Commission altered the language in this area to indicate that the hospital would pay for all road improvements in Phase One, and would share in proportionate local costs of any larger project such as improving the Route 41-Deerpath interchange.

McAfee said traffic is expected to increase 10 percent from the replacement hospital and another 10 percent from the new medical office. However, the hospital expects a 25 percent reduction of traffic on Deerpath due to the right in, right out entrance to be built off Route 41 into the central campus.

The added traffic raised security concerns by residents, and the Plan Commission included a condition asking for security considerations from a design and operational perspective. (see attached PDF)

On building height, the taller parts of the replacement facility would be in the center and east areas of the hospital campus. Reisenberg said the building height would be no greater than 81 feet including mechanicals, but it didn’t eliminate the possibility that it could be taller.

Reisenberg said the hospital needs to make every effort to stay within the 81 feet limit or show why it can’t as the process unfolds.

“If Mr. McAfee says it has to be 92 or 95 feet including mechanicals, I would approve that,” Reisenberg said. “I’m not going to stand in the way of you building a world class hospital, but I do want to challenge you. We owe it to the residents.”

Under land uses, McAfee said there will be no stand alone retail or hotel built. The focus will stay with medical education and research.

On open spaces and buffers, McAfee said the master plan remains committed to 104 acres of open space or more than 65 percent of the 160-acre campus. No-build buffers facing Waukegan Road and neighborhood streets that border the campus like Lorraine Lane have been doubled from 14.47 acres to 28.7. The buffer distance from neighboring homes to the new hospital will range from 600 feet in the south campus to 1500 feet from Waukegan Road.

Czerniak said the setbacks were "greater than any contemplated before," and they meet or exceed anything since a previous proposal in 2005.

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