CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Chesapeake City Council on Tuesday voted 8-0, with Mayor Rick West absent, to deny a conditional use permit for an alcohol and substance abuse recovery facility in close proximity to Deep Creek Elementary School and Deep Creek High School.
Several City Council members said such recovery services are sorely needed in the area, however they did not believe that being within 900 feet of an elementary school was the right place for them.
“This parking lot is not secure, and it cannot be guaranteed that inpatients or outpatients will be entirely prevented from crossing paths with first-graders,” Angie Swygert, chair of the Chesapeake School Board, said during the public hearing. “The schools are just simply too close.”
The facility is operated by Fishing Point Healthcare, a service of the Nansemond Indian Nation. It aimed to provide inpatient services for up to 68 people at a time, who would be free to leave at will, as well as outpatient services. The services included group and individual therapy as well as case management services to help recovering patients reintegrate into their families, the workplace and the community.
David Darling with the Nansemond Indian Nation said they decided to start the healthcare service because of a desire to serve the community and earn an income to help preserve the nation’s culture and sovereignty.
“What a lot of tribes do to make money,” Darling said. “they do out of necessity, but they’re things that take from their communities. Our tribe, on the other hand, has a very, very deep-seated belief system in being stewards of our land, and stewards of our land is not just the girth that we’re standing on, it’s the people who inhabit it with us.
“In the great words of Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility,” he continued. “When we were given our chance to be federally recognized, it gave us the chance to step up and do something.”
Fishing Point also operates a home health service, a primary care facility in Portsmouth, and a behavioral health practice. The substance abuse recovery facility has been operational at the Chesapeake location – 2856 Forehand Drive – for nearly a year without a conditional use permit. In April, the city issued a notice of violation for that.
Darling asserted the facility is safe. “I think that’s best evidenced by the fact we have been operating almost a year already and there has been not one single incident of any kind,” he said.
To assuage security concerns, Fishing Point had said it would have its entrance doors locked 24 hours a day, alarms on exit doors, outside lighting and cameras. Clients would be monitored 24 hours a day, with location checks every hour during the day and every 30 minutes at night. There would also be a fence with gated and controlled access points.
They also said no services would be provided to sex offenders or violent criminals.
Neighbor Jeremy Hackworth said he didn’t see an issue with the facility.
“They’ve been open arms, open doors – I see no reason to have any kind of fear that they’re there.”
The healthcare facility also said it would provide a $50,000 annual payment to Chesapeake Public Schools. However, CPS Interim Administrator of Planning Alex Pope and Chief Operations Officer Paige Stutz stated in a Nov. 14 letter to city planners, “An annual contribution will not mitigate safety concerns by the school district.”
The two schools close by have a combined enrollment of 2,400 students, the administrators continued, and in addition to immediate safety concerns, their letter stated the close proximity of the center “could normalize addiction and make it seem like an acceptable part of life.”
City Council members said the need for recovery was close to their heart, with at least two of them citing family members who struggle. However, they objected to the location near a school.
Councilman Don Carey said he frequents the same grocery stores as the families whose children attend school at Deep Creek Elementary and Deep Creek High.
“I could not look myself in the mirror, or them, if an instance were to occur with one of these students coming to harm based on a decision that I was in charge of making while on council,” Carey said.
Council Member Amanda Newins added that the restriction on violent offenders and sex offenders receiving treatment there did not include some narcotics offenses, some firearms offenses, and others that would not be compatible with being near a school.
