Lake County Gazette

At its Dec. 12 meeting, the Highland Park City Council considered a planning and design commission recommendation to grant a special-use permit to an animal hospital at 661 Central Ave. for off-use street parking and a waiver of payment in lieu of off-street parking. In the case of this type of ordinance, the city has only once enforced the payment aspect of the code.

“Just briefly, there were concerns expressed about animal waste and associated issues with running an animal hospital that were expressed in public comments," said council member Anthony Blumberg. "It's been my experience that these are not unusual concerns with similar businesses that have been allowed to open in Highland Park, and this has been managed well."

Blumberg then addressed the petitioner, Greg Gibson. "Our code certainly requires that you pay attention to those things, and I know that you will and I'm confident that you will. I think having this in the business district is beneficial to the community on the whole. I think it will hopefully attract a lot of foot traffic, if only to peek in the window and see what animals need to be rescued or helped. I do think the condition of approval of keeping the windows open is an important one. That's not that's something that we normally require. But I do want it to be a condition of approval so that it's understood.”

Gibson assured the board that any business supplies to be unloaded would be unloaded in the back and customers would be able to enter from either the front or back entrances.

The council members discussed a couple other aspects of the business, including parking spaces and permits. Another was that residents want the windows in the business to remain uncovered, which the council can make a condition of the permit. They also discussed the regulations for animal waste and medical waste, which Gibson said he was well aware of and comfortable handling once he got the business up and running.