Opposition to First Contact's 20,000 SF Drug Treatment Center on Erkwood Road

First Contact Ministries, affiliated with Mud Creek Baptist Church, is proposing to build a new 20,000 square foot, 45 bed Drug Treatment Center called Life Enhancement Center on Erkwood Road across from the church.

The Drug Treatment Center would not be compatible with the existing residential nature of the community along Erkwood Road and Rutledge Drive. Neighborhoods along Erkwood and Rutledge would be negatively impacted by the proposed facility in multiple ways.

The proposed location is currently zoned R-1/R-40 which is strictly residential. First Contact Ministries applied to County leaders for a Special Use Permit (Re-Zoning) to reclassify the property from residential to commercial, essentially altering the very fabric of the community forever.

Two (2) facilities, a group home and an activity center, already conduct business within a very short distance of the proposed drug treatment center. This facility, a so called Assisted Living Facility, would further expand the care and treatment industry in this primarily residential community and should not be allowed.

Neighbors in the vicinity are concerned that the proposed facility will add an inordinate amount of additional traffic to an already challenging situation, create noise pollution, light pollution and be an attractive nuisance since a drug rehabilitation facility might attract an element into the community that preys on vulnerable people in need of counseling and rehabilitation.

Residents in the vicinity purchased their homes expecting the community to remain strictly R-1/R-40 zoning for their protection, not expecting the community to be altered into a business and commercial enterprise zone.

There are more appropriate places to build the facility that are not zoned R-1/R-40 residential.