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Parents and longtime residents tell commissioners the new hospital will ease travel burdens and meet a regional need
Summary
Two public commenters — a local parent who described repeated long trips to downtown care for her child and a former village planner with long ties to the site — urged commissioners to support the hospital, describing personal impacts and historical context.
During public testimony Britney Magnus, a Downers Grove parent, told commissioners that her family made frequent long trips to downtown Lurie Children’s during her son’s cancer treatment, sometimes taking up to two hours each way. "If Lurie Children's Hospital had been down in Downers Grove, our lives would have looked very different," Magnus said, and she described how a local campus would have reduced travel, kept families more intact during treatment periods and eased the burden of emergency trips.
Ken Rathje, a 52‑year Downers Grove resident and former community development director and planner for the village, also spoke in support. He said he has a long history with the property and as a planner he sees the project as an appropriate regional facility for DuPage County, and he said he can’t support the project enough.
There were no public speakers recorded in opposition during the hearing; staff and petitioners said they had met with several local institutions and had nine letters of support in the application packet, and an additional support letter from the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County was placed on the dais the afternoon of the hearing.
