City Council Approves Controversial Fertility Clinic

One of the most contentious issues to come before the Naperville City Council in some time was decided based on zoning.

A packed audience filled the City Council chambers Tuesday night as the Council heard comments for and against the Naperville Fertility Center. After lengthy public comment from members of the audience, the council voted 7-2 in favor of the ordinances that will allow the center’s development.   

The Naperville Fertility Center will be located at the corner of Benton Avenue and North Washington Street at 3 N. Washington St. Dr. Randy Morris, who has offices in Naperville, Plainfield and Chicago, sought to build the fertility clinic, which will offer in vitro fertilization services. 

The item came before the City Council at the March 20 meeting and council held the issue over until Tuesday for a vote. Council members Bob Fiesler and Paul Hinterlong voted against the center.

Fiesler said there have been controversial projects in the past, such as the Plank Road development, but he said in that case the council sent the development back several times to have changes made to the development.

“Here I don’t think we’ve done the best job we can to locate and configure a building,” he said.

City Councilor Kenn Miller said that there have been many controversial issues to come before the city council, but this “is the biggest and ugliest I’ve seen,” he said. 

“It’s really divided the city and I hope it doesn’t divide friendships,” Miller said.

If the ordinance before the council were only a social issue, then Miller said, the council would most likely be divided. But, he said it was not a social issue, it was a zoning issue and needed to be decided as such.

The council heard arguments for and against the development. Those speaking against the center offered a range of concerns from the sanctity of life and the potential embryos that might be discarded to the number of variances necessary for the development.

Resident Gerard Malone was one of many to comment before the Council. He opposed the center. He said he has a special needs child and while he understood the desire couples may have to raise a family, he was disturbed by the idea that some children might remain frozen, never to be born because of the possibility of developmental problems. 

Morris had a large number of supporters, including clients, in the audience during the council meeting. Those speaking in favor of the center said that it would bring business to Naperville, that it would be a positive addition downtown and that it would help people build families, which is in keeping with Naperville's family-friendly environment. 

Pastor H. Jason Reed, of the , spoke in favor of the development. He said that his church along with the major Protestant denominations all support in vitro fertilization, which represents hundreds of millions of people. 

Reed said he has counseled many couples over the years who have struggled to have a child and who have chosen in vitro fertilization—some were successful and other were not.

“When it has been successful, it is a wonderful thing,” Reed said.