CAMPTON HILLS – The team behind Kiva Recovery has resisted responding to literature circulating against the alcohol and substance abuse treatment facility proposed for the former Glenwood School site.
But on Tuesday night, its attorney Patrick Griffin said the propaganda is hard to ignore.
He pointed out several inaccuracies to the standing-room-only crowd that packed the Congregational United Church of Christ for the village board’s first look at the annexation proposal.
“I could go on,” Griffin said, noting his disappointment that future patients have been labeled as “moral inferiors” and “lepers.”
Kiva Real Estate applied in July to have Campton Hills annex the unincorporated property.
After four public hearings, the Plan Commission this month made a favorable recommendation – with conditions – to the village board regarding zoning requirements for special use.
Village president Patsy Smith expects the annexation agreement will require three public hearings and – as did Griffin – stressed that nothing has been predetermined.
She said before the meeting that she is bothered by misinformation in resident-generated materials against the proposed facility and the suggestion that she supports it.
“I haven’t decided,” she said.
At the meeting, Smith read a draft of the 18-page annexation agreement – a fluid document that is far from being finalized, she said.
Among other conditions, it sets the maximum number of patients to 96, prohibits patients from being accepted directly from the criminal justice system, requires regular drug testing for employees and patients, calls for a perimeter fence and states that Kiva must post a $50,000 cash bond with the village that will be forfeited in the event of certain violations.
Kiva representatives described the agreement as comprehensive and said it would do an admirable job of protecting the village.
They expressed a willingness to work with the village to accept the spirit of the terms.
“We will make you very proud to have Kiva part of your community,” Terry Shapiro of Kiva Recovery said.
Several attendees indicated a willingness to speak during public comment, which began at about 8 p.m. They don’t want to live near an addiction treatment facility just like they don’t want to live near a prison or dump, they said; they asserted that drug addiction goes hand-in-hand with crime and violence; and they questioned Kiva’s business plan.
The village intends to conduct an informal poll about Kiva through postcards that will be mailed with the December newsletter, Smith said.
She said the board will give significant weight to the responses if 1,500 are returned. That would represent about half the households in the village, she said.
Smith encouraged Campton Hills residents to learn the facts by reading the documents posted on the village’s website, www.villageofcamptonhills.org.
