Roanoke, Virginia – A mental health facility proposal is continuously causing a stir in Virginia’s Northwest Roanoke County.
The meeting of the Roanoke County Planning Commission was a fully packed house last Monday night wherein many expressed their concerns regarding the proposal that involves mental urgent care.
Intercept Youth Services is planning to construct a mental health facility in the previous location of the office building of Advance Auto Parts along 5637 Airport Road. Existing building facilities are planned to be for offices while the new construction will be for short-term stay with a total of 60 beds urgent care clinic facility.
To be able to achieve this, Intercept Youth Services are required to acquire a permit and also an approval of re-zoning. As of the moment, urgent care clinics cannot be constructed on the said property because it is currently zoned to be an industrial area and is part of a total 2% land zoned that is for this purpose. Intercept Youth Services only can place legally their offices, but no mental health facility construction will be allowed.
The vote of the Planning Commission resulted to unanimously not recommending the approval of the change requests. The decision was made after the zoning concerns were discussed and pleas were made by numerous community members.
Though finding urgent care near me is always important, many residents like Jennifer Tucker spoke out and felt that Intercept Youth Service’s proposal wasn’t a good idea. Tucker stated that she will not deny that the services Intercept Youth Services offer is a necessity for the community, but strongly feels that it’s not safe for the whole neighborhood if such a facility is constructed in their backyard.
The proposed construction was designated officially as a halfway house, but officials of Intercept Youth Services say that the title given is misleading. Officials say that their proposal is actually licensed to be a medical treatment facility which can provide a 30 to 90 day housing.
Mark Bogert the Executive Director of Intercept Youth Services stated that when the idea of being entitled as a halfway house was being proposed to be its category, he really strongly disagreed because it does not define what the purpose of the facility.”
Mark Bogert added that the proposed facility will be the first and only treatment center that can deal with specialized issues in the area. Currently, patients need to travel to Richmond just to get needed services from a mental health facility, making it more important for them to establish the facility in Roanoke.