Some in Des Moines upset over plan to build recovery center near elementary school

DES MOINES, Wash. -- Some residents are speaking out against a plan to build a recovery center for treating drug addicts and the mentally ill near an elementary school in Des Moines.

Although the recovery center is already approved by the city of Des Moines, opponents say the fight is not over.

“Everyone is raising holy hell now,” resident John Castronover said.

Emotions are high over fears of what is to come.

A methadone clinic could open later on the site if the center raises enough funds.

“Who puts a methadone clinic next to a school?” Castronover asked.

Woodmont Elementary is less than a 1,000 feet from an eight-acre vacant lot approved for a five-building campus to treat drug addicts and the mentally ill.

“I feel like we are getting a little poverty discrimination because we are getting dumped on because we can’t fight for ourselves,” opponent Candace Urquhart said.

Some Des Moines residents say that area of Pacific Highway just a block north of the planned building site is already plagued by crime and a recovery center will make it worse.

“That is already a buffet of prostitution and crime we cannot handle,” Urquhart said.

The organization behind the recovery center, Valley Cities, says that despite the outcry, they are breaking ground this fall.

“We recognize this is a controversial issue, but fundamentally we want people to get better, right?” CEO Ken Taylor said.

The nonprofit says there is a crisis, that about 3,000 people in King County are suffering from mental illness have nowhere to get treatment.

“We only found two locations where we could commercially locate,” Taylor said.

Taylor added that a vacant lot in Auburn went to another bidder, leaving the site near the elementary school their only option.

“We are not really happy (about) another piece of commercial property going over to a nonprofit; we have more than our share,” said Des Moines Mayor Dave Kaplan.

The mayor said the city couldn`t change the commercial zoning at the last minute just to keep the recovery center out.

“We would be subject to a lawsuit by interfering by changing the rules,” Kaplan said.

But opponents say the fight is not over. They planned on speaking out at a meeting at Woodmont Elementary Tuesday night.

“We are not against the facility; we are against the location,” Castronover said.

Valley Cities say they would like to get into a "good neighbor agreement," allowing residents to weigh in on the best way to manage the facility.

The first building will house 24 beds for psychiatric evaluations. It is scheduled to open in late summer 2016.