04/05/2015 -ATIN – The St. Landry Parish government in Louisiana, after Acadiana Addiction Center filed federal lawsuits, decided Wednesday not to enforce special zoning restrictions it passed to prevent Acadiana from expanding its treatment facility on land it purchased in a rural subdivision in St. Landry called Sunset, according to published reports. St Landry Parish officials had this to say to local reporters in response to the strong NIMBY reaction of Sunset residents: Based on best counsel (attorney advice) the cost of fighting the lawsuit would have been prohibitive and, in the end, it would have been highly unlikely that St. Landry Parish would have prevailed in court. So now Acadiana will soon be moving in to the slightly more than $1M new 10-acre property it purchased and begin treating clients there.
Strong NIMBY Reaction, VERY poor PR handling of Resident Relations
According to published reports, the usual ignorant NIMBY reactions came forth from the local residents in Sunset. One local resident told a local reporter Sunset wouldn’t know whether they would have criminals roaming amongst their midst, while another Sunset resident woman said she just bought her retirement home in the area and does a lot of traveling and now wouldn’t feel safe leaving her house unattended. A very poor job was done in public relations advising the residents past experiences when treatment centers have moved into residential neighborhoods, with few if any negative experiences both in rise in crime and effect on land values. Also, no one explained that if the community has over 1,000 residents it means that local statistics on addiction mirror national ones, meaning that 10 percent to 20 percent of Sunset residents already have issues with addiction ranging from highly acute to very modest addiction problems.
