The Victorville City Council has joined the Victor Valley Union High School District in opposing the expansion of a San Bernardino County-based addiction treatment center near schools.
During a special meeting called Thursday, Jan. 8, the council voted 4-0 to adopt a resolution opposing the location of the San Bernardino County facility’s expansion near Silverado High School and Larrea Middle School.
The county’s planned $60 million project includes a residential and outpatient behavioral health and substance-use treatment center.
The facility would be built on nearly 29 acres near Palmdale and Cobalt roads, and be within a quarter mile of Cobalt Institute of Math & Science, located on Topaz Road, as well as as adjacent to Silverado High School.
The decision came after the Victor Valley Union High School District Board of Trustees adopted a similar resolution in December.
The resolution
City of Victorville officials said by adopting the resolution, the City Council formally:
“While acknowledging the need for supportive services, the Council’s opposition to the expanded treatment is due to its proximity to local schools, a lack of community engagement, failure to assess impacts to local services such as public safety, and failure to communicate with the City, school district, and residents,” the city stated.
Treatment facility
The county’s approved project includes a gated residential and outpatient behavioral health and substance-use treatment center with more than 200 beds, expanding an existing facility that is currently located farther away from the schools.
The planned facility also includes outpatient and psychiatric services, and a withdrawal management treatment facility.
The expansion would roughly triple the size of the existing facility and bring its borders within a few hundred feet of the three schools, which serve more than 4,000 combined students daily.
Phase 1 and 2
Historically operated as a drug and alcohol treatment facility, the new Comprehensive Treatment Campus in Phase I would add youth psychiatric residential treatment, adult and youth residential substance use disorder treatment, adult and youth outpatient substance use disorder treatment, withdrawal management, and outpatient wellness center services.
Phase 2 proposes to add psychiatric health, including acute care, crisis intervention and involuntary psychiatric holds, adult social rehab, 24/-hour crisis stabilization units and a sobering center.
Potential school disruptions, lockdowns
During the meeting, district leaders, staff, students and parents voiced their concerns about the facility’s expansion.
Some issues raised included student and staff safety, emergency response coordination, traffic congestion along Cobalt Road, parking expansion and the potential for school disruptions such as lockdowns.
“The question is not whether behavioral health services are needed,” District Superintendent Carl Coles said, prior to the council’s vote. “The question is whether this is the appropriate location for a facility of this size and scope, given its proximity to schools.”
Stephanie Landez, a parent of a Silverado student and the school’s activities director, said she spoke on behalf of more than 2,000 SHS students, “whose voices were not meaningfully included in this decision, but who will live with its consequences.”
Town hall meeting
While acknowledging the county’s legal authority to proceed with the project, Coles urged a more deliberate and collaborative approach.
Coles called for a pause in construction, a meaningful study evaluating impacts on nearby schools, consideration of alternative locations and structured community input involving parents, staff and residents.
The City Council agreed that the services are needed, but members questioned the location as well as an apparent lack of communication before construction activities began.
“We emailed you on many occasions, and we got nothing,” Becerra told county officials who were present at the meeting. “I have no doubt that had the county reached out to us, we would not be here today.”
District officials are assisting the county in facilitating an upcoming town hall meeting to receive further input from the community.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Victorville city leaders oppose addiction treatment center near schools
Reporting by Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
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