Orland Park considers new group home

A proposal for a medium-sized group home located approximately one mile northwest of Orland Square Mall has made it over the first of three hurdles.

Village plan commission members on Tuesday endorsed issuing a special use permit allowing six residents to live in a single-family home operated by a Tinley Park-based agency that also offers educational and vocational services for children and adults with developmental disabilities.

The advisory panel’s unanimous approval followed a public hearing that drew approximately 50 Tuckaway subdivision neighbors concerned about how their safety, security and property values would be affected by the home, operated by St. Coletta’s of Illinois.

The hearing opened with a brief presentation by Ray Bryan, St. Coletta’s associate vice president of community programs.

Bryan said the six male residents range in age from 40-46 and have been “with the agency for 30 years. These are not new clients.”

He also said the men would spend most weekdays at St. Coletta’s Tinley Park campus, returning in the afternoon to the house in the 1440 block of Oakley Avenue.

Bryan and St. Coletta’s staff members also responded to residents’ and commissioners’ questions and issues, but not all of them could be answered.

Neighbor Bob Summers cited a DuPage County study that allegedly linked the presence of group homes to lower property values.

“I’m gonna be there for the next 30 years,” Summers said. “We don’t know if they’re going to be there 30 years.”

Heather Benedick, St. Coletta’s director of psychology, responding to specific questions from Summers, said the residents that would be at the Tuckaway subdivision group home “all have cognitive disability. They have IQs that are below 70. If you know your own IQ, that defines the difference between them and you.”

Benedick said the six residents sometimes displayed impulsive behavior, but that was limited to minor eating and hygiene issues. Benedick said the clients would not pose a risk to the community.

Benedick also acknowledged some of St. Coletta’s clients have autism, but said none of them will be at the home in Orland Park.

“Our practice has always been to move individuals into a home (with) people that are like them,” she said.

Several residents asked why St. Coletta’s was putting the six men into the single-family home. Currently four live in a 3-bedroom apartment in Tinley Park and the two others live elsewhere.

Annette Skafgaard, the organization’s vice president of finance and operations, said the men have asked to live in a single-family home. She described the 2,400-square-foot residence as “nicer, roomier. The home is very large; there’s plenty of room for them.”

Group Home Manager Deanna Wetzel added that the home’s two master bedrooms will accommodate four of the men; each of the other men will have his own room. Wetzel later told Plan Commission Chairman Louis Stephens her group home staff hasn’t changed in 21 years.

The workers undergo a three-week “intense training” period and are “trained in everything,” including behavioral problems, emergency preparedness and CPR, Wetzel said, adding she makes unannounced inspections.

Wetzel also told Commissioner Judith Jacobs the residents wouldn’t wander away. “They’re not going to take off; they’re not going to bolt.”

Bryan said the agency is “absolutely not interested” in adding more residents.

“We also have monitoring agencies that come into our houses unannounced,” he said. “If they come in and we have more (residents) than we’re supposed to, that would be a problem for St. Coletta’s.”

The plan commission recommendation heads to the village board’s development services, planning and engineering committee, which meets Monday. That three-trustee panel will make its recommendation directly to the full village board.

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Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.