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Some residents of Forest Park in Springfield are opposing using this site at 64 Treetop Ave. for a group home for girls.

(The Republican file photo / John Suchocki)

SPRINGFIELD – Residents of East Forest Park have launched a petition drive, opposing plans for a group home for girls at 64 Treetop Ave., raising fears that such a facility will "change the character of this wonderful neighborhood."

Joan Ingersoll, executive director of the Mental Health Association, said her agency is planning a four-person group home for girls ages 16 to 22, that will be staffed 24 hours a day and not cause any harm or disruption to the neighborhood.

Paul Edwards, a neighbor at 56 Treetop Ave., said residents are very upset and have gathered more than 60 signatures.

“Our concern is that this corporation is going to place a large number of mentally unstable patients into a densely populated neighborhood,” the petition states in part. “The homes in this street are situated very close together, yet it has remained a very quiet neighborhood for many, many years. Some residents have been living here for 60+ years.”

City Solicitor Edward Pikula, in a legal opinion to Deputy Planning Director Philip Dromey, said the proposed group home is exempt from local zoning regulations under state law. Under the law, known as the Dover Amendment, such a use of property is exempt because it involves educational services by a nonprofit educational institution.

The group home is being provided through the Youth in Transition program, which involves residential services and to help the girls establish the skills they need in order to live independently, Ingersoll said.

The petition asks that the Mental Health Association “find a more suitable location for their potentially proposed facility.”

The petition states that neighborhood residents were “completely unaware of the plans while renovations progressed.

Ingersoll said the girls residence was in a different Springfield neighborhood for seven years without any complaints in that time. There is no date for the move yet, but there will be an open house for neighborhood residents to set the site and ask any questions, she said.

“We fully expect that this program will not disrupt or negatively impact the neighborhood in any way.” Ingersoll said. “We expect the girls to be good neighbors.”

The Mental Health Association purchased the property, and is caring for girls under the care of the state Department of Children and Families, Ingersoll said.