An application to rezone property on Old Louisville Road where a 100-bed men’s recovery center is planned was approved Thursday night by the City-County Planning Commission, despite opposition from a domestic violence shelter in the area and other business owners.

The rezoning will next go to the Bowling Green Board of Commissioners for approval.

Members of the planning commission voted 7-4 in favor of the rezoning. Commissioners Chuck Coppinger, John Atkerson, Cliff Nahm and Kenneth Sparks voted against approval.

The application requests a rezoning of about six acres at 1791 Old Louisville Road from agriculture and highway business to planned-unit development.

Hamp Moore, attorney for the planning commission, told commissioners that, according to Kentucky statute, they needed to treat the zoning request for the facility like any other residential zoning request without consideration of the people potentially living there.

The facility would be a $7.4 million project, said David Vickery, attorney for the developer.

Applicants made an effort to individually contact as many neighbors to the property as possible, he said.

The facility would provide a nine- to 12-month recovery program for men, said Dale Sights, chief executive officer of the Women’s Addiction Recovery Manor in Henderson. WARM would also operate the Bowling Green center, called the Men’s Addiction Recovery Center.

MARC would house 100 residents, with between 40 and 50 of them coming there as a result of recommendations from the Department of Corrections, Sights said.

He said the recovery center in Henderson is located about a block and a half from a women and children’s shelter and is largely supported by the community.

Sights said he doesn’t believe MARC will create a threat in the area.

“If I felt for a minute that this facility would be anything other than a treasured community asset, I would not support it,” he said.

Mike Townsend, of the Kentucky Housing Corporation, said MARC would be part of the Recovery Kentucky program, established by former Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

He said a study of the program used in Recovery Kentucky facilities showed 74 percent of people were still sober or drug-free one year after the program.

Concerns from neighbors, such as the Barren River Area Safe Space, included safety, increased traffic problems, a lack of sufficient sidewalks for pedestrians from the facility and proximity of establishments that serve alcohol to the recovery facility.

Sights said he isn’t concerned about the proximity to establishments that serve alcohol.

“The rest of their lives, they’re going to be confronted with those obstacles, and they might as well face that now,” he said.

Lee Alcott, executive director of BRASS, said the organization has been at its current location near the proposed recovery center for about 22 years.

“This has remained the best kept secret in Bowling Green until this evening when we are forced to publicly disclose our location,” she said.

While BRASS strongly supports addiction recovery, the proposed location of the recovery center conflicts with the mission of BRASS and creates a danger for the women and children served there, she said.

“Domestic violence shelters have no power, they have no money, but we have our voice, and we are here to plead with planning and zoning to deny the requested zone change at 1791 Old Louisville Road” she said to commissioners Thursday.

Men walking nearby as part of the recovery regimen could also endanger ability of residents at BRASS to move about freely or even wait for the bus, she said.

Alcott said she learned about the zoning change through a media notice and contacted KHC to learn more.

After the meeting, Alcott and Randy Schocke, president of the BRASS board, said they plan on consulting BRASS’ legal counsel, but are unsure as to how they will proceed.

Holly Fields, owner and director of the Academy for Little People at 1710 Old Louisville, said she feels the facility is a threat to the children in her care with the possibility of residents walking nearby.

“I want to appeal to you as parents and grandparents that there is a threat to children,” Fields said.

She said she got a call from Sights about the proposal, but didn’t feel she had enough time to do proper research.

Coppinger said that, from a policy standpoint, he feels there was lack of clarity on whether enough people were informed about the application for rezoning. He was also concerned about a lack of sidewalks in the area when walking is part of the recovery program.

He said he was also disappointed that BRASS was forced to reveal its location at the meeting.

“When it comes down to it, that’s the most disturbing thing that happened tonight,” Coppinger said.

Commissioner Larkin Ritter, who made the motion to approve the application for zone change, said he felt the recovery center met the criteria for a positive vote from the commission.

“It’s understandable, but most of that testimony was aside of requirements under which we have to make our decision,” Ritter said of opposition to the zone change.