An ambitious proposal by the DuPage Housing Authority to convert the former home of a Roman Catholic religious order into an assisted-living facility was recommended on a 4-0 vote of the Oak Brook Plan Commission Monday night.
The commission is recommending that Oak Brook’s zoning regulations be changed to allow the facility for older adults on the condition that it not be operated by anyone other than the Housing Authority without village approval.
The project next goes to Oak Brook’s Zoning Board of Appeals, probably next month, for another review. The Village Board has final say, which Housing Authority officials hope will come by August.
Plans call for building 93 assisted-living apartments for older adults, at a cost of $15 million to $18 million, in the former St. Paschal Friary, which overlooks Illinois Highway 83 south of Oak Brook Road in Oak Brook.
The building’s imposing stone and redbrick exterior would be preserved, but most of the 110,00-square-foot interior would be gutted for the studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments. Most would rent at market rates, expected to start around $3,300 a month, but 19 units would be reserved for people with lower incomes. The opinions of two commissioners, Surendra K. Goel and Samuel J. Girgis, shifted after they toured the friary.
“I say this structure is going to preserve a heritage of Oak Brook, and I see no reason for it not to be done,” Goel said.
The most vocal critic of the project during four months of hearings was Constantine Xinos of the Briarwood Lakes subdivision, who questioned its financial feasibility and said it would not be in the best interests of Oak Brook.
“No one wants a housing project because that’s what it’s going to be–20 percent welfare,” Xinos said. “That’s the real issue.”
There also was concern that Oak Brook could face a troublesome decision about what to do with the building if the proposed facility becomes a financial fiasco for the housing authority.
A report by a Wheaton appraisal firm said the project would not hurt nearby property values and could generate nearly $128,000 a year in property taxes.
The project would be financed with tax-exempt bonds and grants.
The friary was built by the Franciscan order of priests and brothers in the 1950s and 1960s on about 90 acres of what was the Mayslake estate. The last of the Franciscans moved out in late 1991.
The DuPage Forest Preserve District bought the property in 1992 to preserve it as open space. Because it had little interest in the building, the district reached a tentative agreement with the housing authority to sell the friary and about 6 acres around it for $1. The deal is contingent on the housing authority winning zoning approval from Oak Brook.
Forest preserve officials have said the cost of demolishing the building would be more than $1 million.
