“My client is not giving up on 437 Blackwood,” said attorney Greg Gantt, who represents the business.
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On Wednesday, the Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals rejected a use variance that would have paved the way for Griffin Academy to open the proposed residential facility, which would house up to 16 male foster children between the ages of 15 to 18.
The new group home would be at 437 Blackwood Ave, a long-vacant two-story building that was constructed to be a nursing home.
Griffin Academy said it wants to provide housing, supervision, social services and education for boys in foster care. The group says it would create offices, recreation rooms, community areas, a library, snack room and a kitchen, dining and laundry room.
Griffin Academy asked the city for a variance request to establish a transitional housing facility in a neighborhood that does not permit that kind of use, said Chidochashe Moyo, planner with the city of Dayton.
Some neighbors objected to the group home proposal, and the Northeast Land Use Board recommended the city deny Griffin Academy’s variance request.
Residents said a facility for at-risk teens is not the right fit in the Wright-View neighborhood, which they say is already a “hotbed” of crime, drugs and registered sex offenders.
“The big issue for me would be to take these kids, who are already having a hard time, and drop them in an area that is infested with drugs and crime — that’s not really doing them much justice,” said David Hoerner, a member of the land use board.
Gantt said the proposed facility does not really fit the city of Dayton’s definition of transitional housing, but his client was advised by city staff to apply for that kind of variance.
Gantt said his client’s group home for youth doesn’t perfectly fit any definition of facilities in the city’s zoning code. But he suggested his client may seek a variance to operate a group home.
Dayton Zoning Administrator Carl Daugherty said Griffin Academy sounds like transitional housing, based on the details he was provided.
Some neighbors said they fear if the variance was approved and Griffin Academy went belly up, very undesirable transitional housing could move in for drug addicts, the homeless or other troubled populations.
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