After a very long meeting yesterday evening, Decatur’s Zoning Board of Appeals tabled its decision on whether to allow the Peer Support and Wellness Center to continue operating in the Decatur Heights residential neighborhood.

Here’s a round-up of reports from the scene…

• AJC: Challenge to Decatur Mental Health Center ongoing
• InDecatur: Decatur ZBA hears 444 Sycamore arguments
• DNO: 444 Sycamore Gets Late Night Zoning Board Hearing

Good luck board members.  Either way, people are going to yell at you.

UPDATE: The Zoning Board of Approvals won’t address this issue until March.  Not on the docket for next Monday.

While the AJC’s recent follow-up story on the Peer Support and Wellness Center controversy details the arguments of those making zoning-related arguments about the Center….

“How can you be a resident if you only stay at most seven days? And 25 people who come every day, they are not just visitors,” said Soren Christensen, who has lived in the neighborhood for eight years.

…Dave Kell’s InDecatur and Decatur Heights blogs continue to focus on potential criminal elements.

Publishing an “Incident Address Report” requested from Decatur PD, Dave shows that there were 20 “incidents” called into the center and documented in the past 20 months.  Five of these incidents are tagged “EMS”, while six are labeled “disturbance”, two “location checks”, one “theft”, one “meet a person”, one “suicide threat”, one “criminal trespass”, one “suspicious person”, one “person down” and one “hang up”.

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Dave Kell reports that he and some of his neighbors will meet tomorrow at 4pm to discuss next steps in bringing a case against the Peer Support and Wellness Center at 444 Sycamore Drive.

Soren Christainsen has invited any interested parties to a meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday at his home at 631 Sycamore Drive [between the stop signs at Pinehurst and Fairview] to discuss developments regarding 444 Sycamore Drive and to develop a path forward.

The City Manager has notified the Commissioners of the Staff’s determination that the operations at 444 Sycamore fall within R60 residential zoning. [See a 1/19/2010 inDECATUR post for details.] Some Decatur Heights residents don’t agree. A survey has not yet been taken, the percentage cannot be reported.

An email sent out to neighborhood residents by Mr. Christiansen, featured on Dave’s site, goes into some detail as to their specific grievance.

“The city’s position is that the center is legal and that 25 walk-ins a day are “visitors” and not persons receiving therapy. We disagree. The state contract makes it clear that if the center does not average at least 12 walk-ins a day that they will lose their funding. We believe this is a business.”