Zoning OK’d for addiction center

A faith-based addiction recovery center set to open in southwest Little Rock gained zoning approval from the city Board of Directors last week.

Freshly Renewed, which will be at 8404 Baseline Road, is planned to be a 40bed residential center that provides treatment and care for men recovering from substance abuse. There will be three house managers living there 24/7, director Terrell Newton told the board Tuesday. The center plans to partner with Arkansas Community Corrections to provide transitional housing for former prisoners looking to reintegrate into society.

Two southwest Little Rock residents spoke against the development Tuesday, saying the area is already distressed and the move would put more “undesirable” people and activity on the streets.

But city directors approved the center. Several cited the need for such services.

“It hurt my heart to hear addicts called undesirables. We can do better than that,” Ward 4 Director Capi Peck said.

Vice Mayor B.J. Wyrick, who represents the area, voted no, as did at-large City Director Joan Adcock, who is a longtime southwest Little Rock resident. Both cited opposition from the surrounding neighborhood.

“You’ve got a good story, but I am just concerned about the location and what it might do to the fragile neighborhood that I’ve been trying to lift up for the last number of years,” Wyrick told Newton and another Freshly Renewed staff member who had talked about his own journey to recovery.

Dana Carney, the city’s zoning and subdivision manager, said at a previous meeting that the planning department received a letter of opposition from the West Baseline Neighborhood Association, but it didn’t arrive until after the Little Rock Planning Commission made its zoning recommendation.