Highland Hospital's plans to install a privacy fence along the perimeter of its Kanawha City facility were put on hold when the Charleston's Board of Zoning Appeals asked for a landscaping plan to be included.
The hospital requested a zoning exception for its proposed 12-foot-tall steel privacy fence in hopes of keeping patients inside the boundaries of its facility. Highland President and CEO Cynthia Persily told the board the hospital's 9-foot-tall chain-link fence - with 3 more feet of reinforced wiring across the top and woven with plastic material for privacy - has been scaled a few times by patients, particularly taller adolescent boys, receiving treatment there.
"It's our obligation to provide a safe environment for the patients who are with us, and so we want to invest in a more secure, as well as more private and more safe fence," Persily said.
It's easy to climb and also weathered. Hospital officials want to update it not only to keep patients in, but also to improve the way the hospital and the surrounding neighborhood look.
Highland is a psychiatric hospital with 80 beds for children, adolescents and adults in its new facility. In its old building, Persily said the hospital is opening a residential psychiatric treatment facility with 24 beds for kids ages 4 to 14.
The proposed steel fence is twice the height of what's allowed in that area of Kanawha City - 56th Street and Noyes Avenue. Its smooth steel material would not allow for someone to climb over it since there are no toeholds, Persily said.
The hospital plans to install a white version of the fence and put mulch or stone in some areas so it's "more pleasant to the eye," she said.
Russ Young spoke as a representative of the Kanawha City Community Association. Young said the organization generally supports the fence, but considered its 12-foot height "excessive." The organization also wants landscaping around its outside perimeter. Young added the hospital should have submitted a more formal drawing and said the one in the board's packet was not to scale.
"I personally would think that a better quality drawing would go a long way toward helping members of board or anyone else toward having a better understanding of what is actually being proposed," Young said.
Young proposed tabling the request until the next meeting.
Persily agreed the submitted drawing was not formal, but added that's because the proposed steel fence sits within the footprint of the existing chain-link fence.
Board member Mary Jo Cleland told Highland officials there is a clear hardship, but asked for a more detailed plan for the perimeter of the facility.
"I do think there's a hardship here if you can't get the fence that you want because of the security issues," Cleland said
The board plans to revisit Highland's request at its Oct. 8 meeting.
Reach Rachel Molenda at rachel.molenda@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5102 or follow @rachelmolenda on Twitter.