Bowling Green will get a new group living facility for recovering addicts near downtown, and a church in Rich Pond will get a new home in the fast-growing area near South Warren High School as a result of actions taken at Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Adjustments of Warren County.

Both of those developments were approved during the meeting in the Bowling Green City Commission chambers for conditional-use permits and variances that will allow them to move forward.

Property owner Deena Brooks applied for the conditional-use permit and variances on her building at 1289 Clay St. that is zoned multifamily residential. It will become the home of Bowling Green’s second Learning to Live recovery home.

George Hampton, who has managed the Learning to Live facility on Kentucky Street for eight years, will oversee the new location as well. He described it as a “sober living home” that will utilize the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to help recovering addicts.

The new Learning to Live site will be in the five-bedroom house on the property. Hampton said it will have a maximum of nine clients of age 18 or older at a time and would have at least one staff member on site at all times.

Learning to Live will not admit anyone convicted of a violent crime or any registered sex offenders, according to the application.

“It’s just a place to give these people a second chance,” Hampton said.

He said residents will go through a six-month recovery program but can stay longer. They will be required to work and will be subject to random drug testing.

In other action, the board approved a conditional-use permit and variances on property owned by Norma Wilson at 8500 Nashville Road. That lot will be sold to Rich Pond Church of Christ and developed into a new South Warren Church of Christ.

The property is just south of South Warren High School and is close to South Glen Gables and other residential developments.

Neel Dillard, a longtime member of Rich Pond Church of Christ near Rich Pond Elementary School, said the new property will allow the church to grow. The current building has a capacity of less than 100 while the new building will accommodate more than 250 people when completed.

Dillard said the church will build on to the house that is on the property to create a newer church building.

“We plan to build a church and auditorium in front of the house and utilize the existing house as classroom space,” he said. “We needed to grow. Little churches out in the county are having a hard time. With all the building going on in this area, this will be a better location.”

Dillard said the church’s attendance has grown in anticipation of the move, which he said fits with the congregation’s goal of “adding souls to the kingdom.”

In another action Thursday, the board approved variances on property located at the end of Skees Road to change the setback distance from the cellphone tower on the property.

Plans for a housing development on the property hinged on the variance and can now move forward.

An application calling for rezoning from agriculture to single-family residential the 28.53 acres at the end of Skees Road near South Warren High School was postponed until the Aug. 16 City-County Planning Commission of Warren County meeting at the request of Luke Williams of Skees Development Group LLC.

The development plan for the property calls for building 76 homes of at least 1,400 square feet each.