From The Herald-News (Chicago)
Updated: May 15, 2013 1:31PM
BOLINGBROOK — A state regulatory board indicated it plans to reject a plan to build a Muslim-friendly surgery center in southwest suburban Orland Park.
But several board members said they sympathize with a problem they hadn’t realized exists — the discomfort that followers of Islam, especially modesty-conscious Muslim women, feel about using any of the existing hospitals, urgent care centers and surgery centers in the Chicago area.
And proponents say they have not given up on the project.
Naser Rustom, a Muslim Arab-American, had asked the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to approve a “certificate of need” for a $5.5 million, 11,000-square-foot “ambulatory surgical treatment center” with five operating rooms in the former Plunkett’s Furniture store building adjacent to Orland Square Shopping Center.
Meeting in Bolingbrook Tuesday, the board voted unanimously, with one member absent, that it “intends to reject” the application.
The issue will come back to the board for a final decision in June or August.
