LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) \u2014 The Lexington Board of Adjustment approved a permit Monday for an in-patient mental health and substance abuse clinic in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, despite strong opposition from residents.<\/p>\n
In a 4-2 vote, board members approved the facility proposed by Roaring Brook Recovery and ZLD Partners. The clinic will be located at 319 Duke Road, a building formerly used for senior assisted living. The Roaring Brook Company will use the facility to treat people with mental health issues, substance abuse, and eating disorders.<\/p>\n
The decision was met with boos of frustration at the meeting, with some opponents shouting, “See you in court.”<\/p>\n
Opponents cited safety concerns, pointing out the clinic is near three schools, including Christ the King. Some argued a treatment facility would be better located in a commercial or industrial area rather than a family-friendly neighborhood.<\/p>\n
An online website called “Chevy Chase Deserves Better” detailed residents’ concerns about crime and property values.<\/p>\n
“This is a tinder box of massive problems that can happen. I’m a doctor, we all know the oath, first do no harm. I think we should all operate the same way in here,” Shawn Milburn said.<\/p>\n
“When an unfortunate event happens because of a psychotic episode, a drug addicted patient relapses and leaves recovery, where do they go? Part of the problem is their inability to make rational decisions,” said a former nurse and longtime resident.<\/p>\n
“We want long term neighbors this is a neighborhood. Here we’ve heard these people will go after 30 and 45 days. They’re not neighbors,” Leah Bachmeyer Kille said.<\/p>\n
However, the clinic also has supporters. One neighbor who did not want to be identified said he welcomes the facility.<\/p>\n
“I think people should be more open to the idea of others receiving mental health benefits regardless of the class and the location,” another neighbor said.<\/p>\n
Chad Sirk, a commercial appraiser and former resident, recovered from substance abuse years ago. He is a former patient of Roaring Brook and said the facility saved his life.<\/p>\n
“I looked at 14 or 15 different markets across the United States,” Sirk said. “And so I found no correlating evidence, empirical evidence that will substantiate that proximate properties are negatively impacted by being next to these healthcare facilities.”<\/p>\n
“The common theme that I heard was, oh yes, we agreed there needs to be some sort of mental health facility. We just don’t put it next to us. And honestly, it was a bit offensive,” Sirk said.<\/p>\n
Opponents promised the fight is not over yet. An attorney for Roaring Brook said the building will undergo renovations, but an opening date has not been set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) \u2014 The Lexington Board of Adjustment approved a permit Monday for an in-patient mental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,228884,228885,84,393,228886,394],"class_list":["post-606342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chevy-chase-deserves-better","tag-chevy-chase-news","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-facility-lex-ky","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}