The majority who addressed city council during the public hearing said they agree with TCN’s mission but had concerns that if land was rezoned and the organization moved into the research park, it could jeopardize the safety of others in the area and cause property values to decline.
The Goddard School, a private preschool, is located across the street from the proposed new TCN site. One of the school’s owners, Lisa Durrant, said the mental health and addiction treatment facility could destroy her business.
“We can’t take that risk with our children there,” she said. “We can’t take the risk of someone being incapacitated looking for treatment at 7 a.m. and perhaps running into one of our parents or one of our children. We can’t take the chance of someone needing money to get a fix or needing money to buy their treatment and looking at our families to get that.”
TCN, a nonprofit organization that offers substance abuse treatment, mental health, psychiatric and prevention services, estimates it serves 70 to 90 clients a day.
The mental health and substance abuse treatment organization has locations in Fairborn and Xenia. The new facility would bring about 30 to 35 jobs to the area, according to Tom Otto, the TCN associate CEO.
Travis Greenwood, president and CEO of the Greentree Group, which owns a building on Technology Court, said his company moved into the research park to be with its “professional peers.”
“Unfortunately, the rezoning request and what would go into that building does not meet the type of peers we would want in our neighborhood,” he said. “That does not say anything bad about people who need treatment. I’m all for that.”
The four city council members who were present — Brian Jarvis, Bob Stone, Zach Upton and Chad Whilding — voted to continue the public hearing and resume discussion on the issue during its next meeting on Feb. 22.
Councilwomen Melissa Litteral and Julie Vann recused themselves from the vote, citing conflict of interest concerns.
“My priorities are, as they’ve always been,” said Jarvis. “Number one, the safety of Beavercreek residents, businesses, employees and visitors as they come in and out of our community. We need to take a really good long look at this as it’s going through it’s final approval process. This is something that will have an impact on the city for a long time to come.”
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