Cache County mulls new group home

(Herald Journal) The owners of Uinta Academy are seeking to locate a third group home in unincorporated Cache County.

They have filed a “reasonable accommodation” request with the county to house 12 clients — adolescent girls with mental health disabilities — in the home.

The Cache County Council is now considering the request, while also having to balance the concerns of several neighbors in the area.

“We are requesting a reasonable accommodation from the existing ordinance to place 12 girls in this residence,” Jeff Simpson, Uinta Academy’s co-owner and executive director, wrote in a January letter to the county. “Uinta Academy is one of the premier treatment programs, nationally, for treating adolescent girls with mental health disabilities partly due to our unique family style treatment approach which normalizes a girl’s life and replicates a family like environment.”

According to the county’s planning staff, the proposed home — termed a residential facility for persons with a disability — is approximately 575 feet from the nearest existing single family home. The home is located at 8135 S. 3600 West in Mount Sterling.

Several neighbors who live less than a mile from the site say they have several concerns, such as property devaluation, increased traffic and a general feeling that the facility would not coincide with the character of the neighborhood.

Original Article