Neighbors of a proposed halfway house tried Monday to get the Mandan Planning and Zoning Commission to deny a zoning change, without success.

The commission voted 8-3 Monday to recommend to the city commission that it change the zoning for the land on Sixth Avenue Southeast across from Dan's Supermarket. The recommendation to the city commission would keep the land zoned heavy commercial, but it would allow people to live there. If the city attorney finds it legal, the recommendation also would put restrictions on the occupants.

Centre Inc., which also runs transition centers in Bismarck and Fargo, wants to locate part of its operation in Mandan. Some of this would include serving more women, for which there is a need, Centre Inc. Director Keith Gilleshammer said. Centre Inc. provides transition services for people released from prison, jail and probation with drug and alcohol addictions.

Residents are concerned the transition center, as it is called by the program, would bring an undesirable element to the neighborhood, make it less safe and harm property values.

"I feel safe" now, resident Mike Brady said. "If you bring this in, I don't."

He is one of the two property owners who were notified of the zoning change. The commission notified people within 300 feet of the property. The letter he received said it would be a group home. He said he thought that would be a different type of facility - one that helps the mentally disabled - than the one proposed. It isn't the female residents who would concern him, he said, but the male residents the program plans to house in the future.

Some residents' concerns grew from the types of people this program would serve because of their chance of causing harm to others. Sex offenders who might harm children and methamphetamine addicts who might harm property were the major concerns.

Shady Lane Apartments was another property owner to receive notification. It has 16 units with primarily mothers and young children. The owners are concerned about the safety of their residents when faced with some types of clients at the proposed halfway house.

"We do have to have these things, but knock out sex offenders and meth addicts," said Lyle Kirmis, of Zurger Kirmis and Smith, an attorney representing Shady Lane Apartments.

The program does not allow high-level offenders into its program, Gilleshammer said. Only under rare circumstances has it had sex offenders in the program, and they were low-level sex offenders, he said.

An addendum to the planning and zoning commission's recommendation is to omit high-level sex offenders and meth addicts, if legal counsel finds it can restrict that kind of use.

Transition programs are not new to the site of the proposed transition center. The Salvation Army ran one, and there was Liberty House. These type of facilities do not increase police work, Mandan Police Chief Dennis Rohr said.

The community has a history of trying to keep rehabilitation-type programs out of the community without success, then having no problem with them once they are there.

Commission member Bill Schott recalled past experiences with the Heartview Foundation and similar organizations in the community. He said that residents at first were against them, but they went through and now it is fine.

"We're not shipping them in from New York," commission member Bill Schott said. "They are from our community, and we have a responsibility."

The city commission will consider the zoning change at its Dec. 4 meeting.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)