A clinic today, a hospital tomorrow
Cannonball and Route 34: Rush-Copley seeks zoning from Yorkville that would allow larger facility in future

February 21, 2007
By Heather Gillers, Beacon News Staff Writer

YORKVILLE -- Kendall County has taken a baby step toward getting its first hospital.

Yorkville officials this week reviewed a plan to zone for commercial use the area surrounding a planned Rush-Copley health-care center.

"We are not now in the position to ask for a hospital, but we want to go ahead and ask for zoning" that would permit one, said Nancy Wilson, vice present of ancillary services for Rush-Copley Medical Center.

"We intend ... to ask for permission to develop our campus as the community -- be it Yorkville or Kendall -- needs service."

In order to build a hospital in Yorkville, Rush-Copley would have to prove to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board that the area needs the facility. Wilson declined to predict when Kendall County would meet state criteria, but said "the need largely comes with population growth."

Yorkville Economic Development Corporation Director Lynn Dubajic welcomed progress toward an eventual hospital.

"It's in everyone's best interest -- the municipality, the city, the medical center -- to have the zoning in place ... to have everything in place," she said.

The $23 million health-care center Rush-Copley is now building at Route 34 and Cannonball Trail will include Kendall County's first walk-in clinic, physician offices, an urgent-care center and room for a host of diagnostic services, including cardiac imaging, CT scans, mammograms and MRIs.

That facility is set to open in 2008, and Rush-Copley officials are awaiting state approval on a plan to add a surgery center.