By Hannah Poling
Staff Writer
A new crisis center is planned for the westside of Columbus.
Patrick Mclean, with ADAMH, attended the July meeting of the Westland Area Commission to discuss the center, which is currently in its planning stage.
“Most of us, or one out of every five residents of Franklin County, will have a mental health situation of some kind in a given year,” said Mclean.
ADAMH’s goal is to provide a center to the community, which will be open around the clock. The center will target adults that are experiencing a mental health or addiction-related crisis in Franklin County regardless of residency or insurance.
The 72,000 square foot center will be located on three acres of land on Harmon Avenue. They anticipate that approximately 34,000 people would use the center each year.
“All of the data we have states that the need for mental health services is growing,” said Mclean.
The center will include a 24/7 walk in, 23-hour observation, and 16 inpatient beds with the anticipation that most long-term stays will be somewhere between three and seven days.
The facility will also include substance use disorder treatment services, pharmacy services, medical services, family support services, and community services.
ADAMH’s goal is to stabilize individuals at this center, get them out of crisis, and then connect them with services outside of the facility for long-term care. This project has the support from the federal and state governments, as well as from philanthropic organizations and hospital systems.
The project is set to break ground this year and they anticipate that the crisis center will open in 2024.
In other news, Jacob Shields with Redwood Living, Todd Foley with POD design, and Attorney Glen Dugger attended the Westland Area Commission meeting to discuss a zoning request for their upcoming project Redwood Alton Darby in Galloway.
The new apartment neighborhood through Redwood Living will be located on the east side of Alton Darby Creek Road. The apartments will be built on land that is currently vacant.
They plan to build 225 single story multi-family units on the property. The apartments are anticipated to be compatible with the adjacent homes.
According to Dugger, “Typical Redwood tenets are high quality. The low density neighborhood appeals to older residents, empty nesters and young professionals.”
The square footage is between 1,294 and 1,620 square feet depending on the apartment. The monthly rent is between $1,875 and $2,275.
There are three existing wetlands on the property, which have been integrated into the project design.
“We modified our design from what we had before to preserve the wetlands,” said Foley. “We created another wetland feature so that this wetland stays wet.”
Redwood plans to have a 70-foot retention pond. The retention pond will have a 40-inch aluminum fence, which will run the length of the pond for safety measures. Redwood is also required to have a 25-foot setback from the property line however, they are committing to a 100-foot set back instead.
“Anything on our project will be engineered first and foremost to maintain offsite drainage,” said Foley.
The wetlands will function independently and all roof drains, and gutters will take the water out where it naturally wants to flow in a controlled released method and storm sewers will be directing the water to the retention pond. The water will be released at the southeast corner of the property.
Redwood Living requested a council variance to alter the R4 building requirements. R4 zoning requires four unit buildings on the lot. Redwood however, wants to do a combination of four-unit and eight-unit buildings together on a lot. The council variance was approved by the commission.
