Youth Facility Set for Discussion

The City Council on Thursday will consider authorizing City Manager William Talley to comment by letter to the county on a draft environmental study for a youth detention facility.

The Rancho Potrero Leadership Academy is proposed as a coeducational detention facility with 90 beds that would house 30 girls and 60 boys, ages 14 to 17. The camp would be similar to the nearby Joplin Boys Ranch and would emphasize academic, social and vocational skills to prepare juvenile offenders for release. Like Joplin, the proposed facility would not handle violent or high-risk offenders.

Talley said that if the letter is approved, it will address a number of questions the city has regarding the facility, including how it would interact with the proposed residential development of Porter Ranch, which is near the proposed facility, and what the effects of a new access road would be.

Talley said the city also wants to look at how the center will deal with the fuel modification requirements for the new facility, which would be in a fire danger area, and what effects those modifications would be on the surrounding area.

The council meets at 7 p.m. in the City Council chamber, 30211 Avenida de las Banderas, Suite 101.