BROOKSVILLE — Neighbors near the site of a proposed facility to help formerly incarcerated women integrate back into the community urged the Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commission this week to reject the project.
But after hearing details about the program, its purpose, its rules and its security plan, planning commission members voted 3-1 to approve the special exception use permit needed for its operation.
The Restoration Center is sponsored by Cornerstone Baptist Church and is proposed for 21 acres on Olympia Village Lane off Sunshine Grove Road currently owned by Christ the Savior Greek Orthodox Church.
The transitional program would accept women as they end their time in jail or prison. The voluntary participants would be brought to the center and provided with housing, training, counseling and spiritual guidance over a nine-month period. The women would be chosen by chaplains, volunteers and correctional officers who believe that each participant has the drive to change her life after paying her debt to society.
But those who live near the site said they did not want to see former prisoners — as many as 30 when the program is in full operation — concentrated in the same area where they live, their children board school buses and where they already have issues with the quality of the roads.
Nearby resident Linda Murray said the center would have "a very direct negative impact on our area.'' Then she asked planning commission members: "Would you feel comfortable if this has been proposed in your back yard?''
Pamela Barnhardt had another concern about the county approving the center, which is adjacent to her property. She and her husband manufacture and sell handguns and rifles.
"I don't think that would be a wise decision next door,'' Barnhardt said.
John A. Mitten, chaplain for the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and a member of the Restoration Center's board, said the plan is to keep the women safe from the outside world while they learn skills they need to again be productive members of society. There would be strict rules, he said, and those who broke them would be removed from the program.
Planning commission member John Scharch voiced concern that the program could draw former inmates from outside the county and voted against the permit. County staffers said the planning commission did not have the ability to require that all participants be local.
Contact Barbara Behrendt at bbehrendt@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1434.