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Board approves inpatient behavioral‑health use at former care center with sale‑contingent condition
Summary
The Scranton Zoning Hearing Board approved Advantage Behavioral Health Services’ request to operate an inpatient behavioral‑health facility at 2309 Stafford Avenue, attaching a condition that the approval will expire if the applicant does not complete purchase of the property.
The Scranton Zoning Hearing Board voted to approve Advantage Behavioral Health Services 2 LLC’s request to use 2309 Stafford Avenue (the former Mountain View Care Center) as an inpatient behavioral‑health treatment facility, subject to a condition that the approval would expire if the applicant does not complete the property purchase.
Attorney Julie Bernstein of Kaplan Stewart, representing Advantage Behavioral Health (ABH), described the request as an adaptive reuse of an existing facility along the highway that the board previously approved for a drug‑and‑alcohol treatment center in December. Bernstein told the board the inpatient program is voluntary, not an emergency acute psychiatric ward, and will use a state residential treatment license analogous to the licensure for the approved drug‑and‑alcohol use.
Colin Studwell, ABH’s CEO, told the board the facility would offer residential behavioral‑health care to voluntary patients whose primary diagnoses include severe anxiety, depression and PTSD. Studwell said the average length of stay would be approximately 30 days, the population would be nonviolent and intake/discharge procedures would be strictly controlled. He said staff would include medical personnel on call and full‑time clinical and administrative coverage; medication administration would be handled by clinicians or licensed nurses and medications would be stored and dispensed under controlled procedures.
Board members questioned operational details including supervision, monitoring and egress. Studwell testified there would be 24/7 staffing, video surveillance of entry points, scheduled visiting hours and regular head counts; he said the facility routinely uses checks and documentation to confirm patient safety. The applicant supplied letters of local behavioral‑health support and told the board the property is separated from residential neighborhoods by roadway buffer and existing landscaping.
Attorney Bernstein and Studwell said the site already has on‑site parking well in excess of typical daily visitor and staff demand. During the hearing representatives gave slightly different numeric descriptions of the parking inventory but consistently described it as “more than adequate” for the proposed patient and staff levels. The applicants said they expected to admit up to 80 patients with roughly 40 staff on payroll, not all on site at the same time.
After public comment — which included requests that the operator consult immediate neighbors and describe safety and monitoring procedures — the board moved and seconded a motion that included a condition mirroring the prior approval: if ABH does not complete the purchase of the parcel, the board’s approval/special exception would expire. The board approved the motion by recorded roll call, 5‑0.
The decision converts a previously granted nonconforming treatment use on the parcel to a closely related inpatient behavioral‑health use, subject to state licensing and the sale‑contingent condition. Managerial and clinical operations, licensing and a community outreach plan were discussed as next steps for the applicants.
