Neighbors protest treatment center

Residents opposed to a planned drug treatment center for single mothers and their children couldn't use the "not in my back yard" argument before the Las Vegas City Council on Monday.

That's because the center is planned to be built one and a half blocks away from a site where Healthy Families currently operates the same type of clinic.

Still, a massive 511 protest calls and letters came in against the zoning change request by Zankan Trust and Madsen Family Limited Partnership regarding plans for a 17,000-square-foot clinic at Smoke Ranch Road and Michael Way.

After nearly 90 minutes of argument, the council voted to hold the request for two weeks to allow the developer and neighbors to meet.

Healthy Families has operated a treatment clinic for pregnant women and single mothers at 2500 Apricot Lane in the county for the past five years.

The new clinic is designed to replace the existing one. It will serve a total of 18 women and their children. The current center serves eight women and their children.

Mayor Jan Laverty Jones said she thought many residents opposed the plan because they were afraid of the unknown -- what a requested zoning change from residential estates to public facility would mean.

Even after assurances about the program and learning there have been no problems with the existing clinic in the past five years, some fears were not calmed.

"Once it's there, we're stuck with it," said Brenda Boyce, a retired Metro Police officer who said she had on-the-job experience with the problems such clinics can bring to a neighborhood.

But the city's planning staff, which recommended approval of the zoning change, said the same 2.5-acre parcel could be developed as 30 apartments.

"I don't want 33 residences there. I don't want 39 trailers for a trailer park there," said resident Frank Haelle, who favored the Healthy Families project. "I don't want to see any of the proposals that could come."

Gloria Jackson, a former client and current substance abuse counselor at Healthy Families, said the clinic helps people make the right choices.

"If we were something for old people to fear ... they'd have been afraid already," Jackson said.

The neighborhood meeting with the developers is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 17, although a site has not yet been determined.

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