New local laws for companies that provide medical testing are being recommended for the city of Park Ridge following a surge over the last two years in pop-up COVID-19 testing sites around the country.
The Park Ridge Planning and Zoning Commission on March 8 voted to recommend a series of requirements for so-called “temporary medical sites,” which would be allowed for up to one year, with the ability to extend their permit four times.
The newly proposed language, which will go to the Park Ridge City Council on April 4, essentially puts an end to COVID-19 or any other testing sites that operate out of trailers or vehicles in parking lots by requiring the businesses to be located inside a “permanent structure.”
The sites will also be redefined as facilities that operate “for the purpose of testing individuals to determine illness…during a public health emergency as declared by the federal, state or local government.”
This language was suggested by City Attorney Julie Tappendorf after Commissioner George Korovilas inquired whether temporary medical testing sites could be restricted to a pandemic.
The testing sites must show proof that they are affiliated with a state or federal laboratory; have not been previously closed down by the state or another unit of government; and maintain a minimum of two parking spaces. They will only be allowed within business districts zoned B2 or B3, according to the recommendation.
City staff would have the ability to approve the sites without them going through the process of obtaining special approval from the planning and zoning commission and the City Council, which would take several weeks.
“If there’s a public health emergency and we need these testing sites, it lets the city be a little more nimble approving these administratively and without the concern of opening this up to anything and everything,” Tappendorf said.
Earlier, some members of the commission indicated they would not like pop-up testing businesses in parking lots to be permitted in Park Ridge. Though not specifically mentioned by the commissioners, some pop-up COVID-19 testing sites operating around the Chicago area and the country have been accused of improper business practices and one company, which operated a site outside a vacant restaurant in Niles, was closed down in January amid state and federal investigations.