Updated Aug. 23 with the state license information from DPHHS

Healing the Circle Lodge, a drug rehab facility, is open at 2601 Jasper Road.

Initially planned as an 18-bed facility that required a special use permit, the company withdrew its application in June after a lengthy public hearing in May that drew significant opposition from neighboring property owners.

Now it’s open with four beds and accepting applications.

Under county zoning regulations, the facility can operate with up to eight beds as a residential inpatient treatment facility.

Under the county zoning regulations, a “community residential facility serving eight or fewer persons is considered a residential use of property for purposes of zoning if the home providers care on a 24-hour-a-day basis.”

Among the allowable uses for such a facility is “a halfway house operated in accordance with regulations of the department of public health and human services for the rehabilitation of alcoholics or drug dependent persons.”

Drug rehab facility proposed for Jasper Road withdraws application

Mike O’Reilly, one of the ownership partners, said that they’d adjusted their business plan to start smaller based on community pushback and hope to expand over time to add more beds.

He said they intend to continue to be quiet neighbors and when they request a permit in the future to allow for more than eight beds, that the community will respond based on their actual operations and “not about rumors.”

O’Reilly said they’ve hired an engineer and are working on issues with the existing septic system that once addressed, they can expand to eight beds.

They’ll use the same admissions criteria as proposed with their earlier permit application and won’t accept violent or sexual offenders, O’Reilly said, and the facility is licensed with the state with six local employees, plus a program director and have contracted Headlands, a national company, as their medical leadership.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services confirmed that the facility is licensed. The provisional license was issued July 1 for a residential substance use disorder facility with a note that it’s a “3.5 clinically managed high intensity residential (adult)/medium intensity residential (adolescent)” facility.

O’Reilly is a partner in the ownership group, which is Pinnacle Health Care Collective.

County zoning board delays decision on proposed Jasper Road drug rehab, seeking more information

Over the summer, Nancy Landa, the majority partner in the ownership group, purchased the property. She’s based in Las Vegas, according to property records.

O’Reilly said the facility is operating with a location conformance permit through the county as the residential facility is allowable under county zoning regulations by right in the zoning district without a special use permit, up to eight beds.

On Aug. 20, Commissioner Joe Briggs provided a copy of the permit issued to Healing the Circle Lodge on July 8.

The permit allows a maximum of four beds until the septic issues are addressed.

City planning staff confirmed that the company hadn’t requested annexation.

In a June 11 letter to county planning, O’Reilly wrote that Healing the Circle Lodge was withdrawing its special use application that had been submitted on April 30.

The letter didn’t indicate the reason for the withdrawal or whether the company would continue looking at Great Falls for a future facility site.

The Electric asked O’Reilly in June if they were continuing to consider Great Falls for a potential chemical dependency rehab site, but didn’t receive a response at the time.

Residential rehab facility planned for Jasper Road

The bulk of the county zoning board’s three and a half-hour long May 15 meeting focused on the proposed Healing the Circle Lodge chemical dependency rehab facility at 2601 Jasper Road.

The board voted to continue their meeting until a future date when the application was completed and signed.

A number of community members spoke in favor of the project, discussing the need for chemical dependency treatment in the area.

Area neighbors spoke in opposition to the project, citing concerns about traffic and safety.

The county zoning board of adjustment reviewed the permit application withdrawal during their June 19 meeting.

*Photo from the Realtor.com property listing