Wasatch Crest Treatment Facility is applying for a permit to use the former BeeHive Homes of Park City senior living facility as a treatment center. The 11,000-square-foot building is on Highland Drive near its intersection with Old Ranch Road.
Some patients would be detoxifying from substances and others would be enrolled in a longer residential addiction recovery program.
Tuesday night, in the second public hearing about the proposal, neighbors raised concerns about trash, parking and safety. Several requested the number of patients be capped at 16, the same number that was allowed at BeeHive. Many commissioners cited those concerns in their decision not to approve or deny the permit.
The Wasatch Crest plan originally called for 32 patients; the newest proposal calls for 28. Neighbors and commissioners, including Thomas Cooke, suggested that was still too many.
“To me, it's just, it's twice the people that were in there before, and it doesn't seem reasonable,” Cooke said.
Neighbor Merilee Riely agreed.
“There's still a problem with occupancy at this facility," Riely said. "And, honestly, with that high quantity of occupancy, it becomes a danger. I'm not against this type of facility. But this is — I've been inside of it. That would be horrific to have anybody trying to rehab squashed into that facility with this occupancy he’s requesting.”
According to materials Wasatch Crest submitted to the county, the proposal includes more space, larger beds and more bathrooms for patients than required by state law.
Commissioner Tyann Mooney requested more information about the type of patients who would use the facility. She said safety is a problem with the proposal, something many neighbors said as well.
The commission was told it has limited authority to regulate the facility because of its classification as a group home. A report from Summit County staffers said the commission must evaluate the application as it would an application for a single-family home.
A land-use attorney representing Wasatch Crest, Paxton Guymon, told the commission the staff report was “spot on.” He said state and federal law prohibit housing discrimination against people with disabilities, and that people who need residential treatment for addiction recovery are considered disabled.
“You'd be treading on very thin ice to deny a conditional use where the applicant has gone to such extent to mitigate the reasonably anticipated detrimental effects for a group of housing that is protected under state and federal law,” he told the commission.
Summit County deputy attorney Lynda Viti, however, told the commission state law explicitly does not include addiction as a disability.
Cooke said that goes against what commissioners had previously been told.
“You know, I have to be really clear, this idea that there's nothing we can do and it's a protected class and we just have to automatically approve it — based on what I'm reading, and based on the advice of our counsel, that's actually not true," Cooke said. "So the idea that we're treading on thin ice, what we're really talking about here is mitigating the known impacts to the community.”
Planning commissioners asked for more information about the legal situation, the number of proposed clients and other impacts the facility could have on neighbors.
The public hearing was closed, though it is possible the commission will schedule another one. No date was set for the next public discussion about the proposal.
