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BZA to hear request to turn Ivy Trace into drug, alcohol treatment center Aug. 7

Monday, July 30, 2018
By ERIC BERNSEE, Editor

A request for a special exception to convert the former Ivy Trace assisted living facility at 815 Tacoma Drive into a drug and alcohol treatment facility will get Greencastle Board of Zoning Appeals attention at its August meeting.

The Indiana Center for Recovery, based in Bloomington, is seeking a special exception to develop an "in-patient medical detox facility" and on-site medical drug technology laboratory, City Planner Scott Zimmerman said in digesting the application for the Banner Graphic.

The former Ivy Trace assisted living facility at 815 Tacoma Drive in Greencastle is the site of a proposed drug and alcohol treatment center for treating victims of substance use disorder.

The proposed facility -- to be located literally down the street from Tzouanakis Intermediate School along Tacoma Drive on Greencastle's northeast side -- would hold a maximum of 26 short-term residential patients who suffer from substance use disorder, according to the zoning petition.

The average patient stay would range 7-21 days. No out-patient treatment is planned, and no visitors will be allowed.

"The patient would be the only person," Zimmerman explained.

"Basically it would a residential use of the structure," he added. "People would be staying there, just not going in and out."

Plans are to employ 20-25 qualified health care professionals.

Indiana Center for Recovery (ICFR) plans to rehabilitate the interior of the structure, modifying residential rooms into office space. Little modification is expected to the exterior of the facility, also previously known as Greencastle Nursing Home.

ICFR's use of the property, the petition notes, "will not substantially deviate from the property's current use as an assisted living facility."

To help local residents learn about its goal of serving as "a long-term asset to the community," ICFR invites the public to an open forum set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1 at City Hall, 1 N. Locust St., Greencastle. The gathering will not be a public hearing on the request nor a formal city meeting, and no decision or other action will be entertained.

When the BZA does consider the request at its Tuesday, Aug. 7 meeting, set for 6 p.m. at City Hall, the petitioners will need to convince Zoning Board members Brian Cox, Wayne Lewis, Andrew Ranck, Margaret Kenton and Mark Hammer that granting a special exception, among other things, would not be injurious to the public health, safety, morals and general welfare of the community. Likewise, the BZA must find the special exception would not be detrimental to other property or uses in the same zoning district and vicinity.

As a special exception in a residential zoning district, the proposed drug and alcohol treatment center could be considered a like use to a mental heath care facility. However, it is interesting to note that had the chosen location been within a commercial district, it would have been approved as a permitted use.

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  • This seems to be an acceptable use of the site. Assisted Living Facilities and Drug Treatment Facilities are both regulated health entities under Indiana Administrative Code. Our community has wide ranging substance abuse issues. A medically supervised inpatient drug treatment facility poses no more risk to a neighborhood than it being situated near an assisted living facility or a public housing complex. We should welcome any opportunity to introduce further local addiction treatment options.

    -- Posted by jorge on Mon, Jul 30, 2018, at 10:42 PM

  • This does not seem like an acceptable use of the site to me. It is entirely too close to a school. Please find another location!!

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Tue, Jul 31, 2018, at 9:11 PM

  • If someone wanted to organize and hold walking narcotics anonymous meetings on the publically owned sidewalk in front of the same school each and everyday -- there would be little recourse to stop them. Let's stop pretending we can micromanage our way into a perfect world. Identify the risks of the proposed use. Determine what risk mitigation needs to be done. Make it happen.

    -- Posted by jorge on Wed, Aug 1, 2018, at 1:35 AM

  • It's a good service but a bad location .

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Wed, Aug 1, 2018, at 10:19 AM

  • "...the proposed drug and alcohol treatment center could be considered a like use to a mental heath care facility"

    Correction, it is not "like" a mental health facility it IS a mental health facility. Addiction is a mental health disorder no different than any other.

    I think this is a great opportunity for the community. An unused building will get put to use doing something productive to fix an issue that is of great (and becoming greater) concern to our community.

    And for everyone saying to find a new location, where exactly else in the community is there a ready-made facility like this? I would guess that if the developer had to build this from scratch it would not be economically feasible.

    -- Posted by hometownboy on Wed, Aug 1, 2018, at 12:46 PM

  • And you think a mental health care facility should be placed right beside an elementary school? I totally disagree. Let them put it right beside you. I don't want it around our children!!!

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Wed, Aug 1, 2018, at 8:20 PM
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