COEUR d'ALENE - The Coeur d'Alene Planning Commission said Tuesday it needs more data before deciding if a treatment facility can continue operating in east Coeur d'Alene.

The six-member panel wants to determine whether police have responded to calls concerning Port of Hope clients too much to warrant the facility a good fit for a nearby residential neighborhood that includes an elementary school.

It also wants to see if state code allows a facility that could house sex offenders to operate so close to Fernan Elementary School, which sits about 400 yards away.

"I'm glad they're going to take a good, hard look and are listening to the school district," said Wendell Wardell, chief operating officer for the Coeur d'Alene School District, following the meeting. "We have concerns."

Port of Hope is applying for a special use permit so it can continue to run its facility that primarily treats drug and alcohol offenders. The clients, under the jurisdiction of the federal Bureau of Prisons, are seeking to re-enter society through the supervised nonprofit.

Port of Hope has operated at 23rd Street and Coeur d'Alene Avenue since 1991. But in 1998, it incorporated federal offenders who committed other crimes, from theft to pornography, according to Port of Hope records.

The change was made unbeknownst to the city, although Port of Hope representatives said they sent letters to the city, including the mayor and police department, notifying officials about the change as the facility was re-upping previous federal contracts. The city noticed the change only recently because Port of Hope sent a letter notifying them they were negotiating a third, five-year federal contract to continue operating.

The city said it didn't have a record of the previous letters, not to say they weren't sent. But the new situation put the planning commission in a unique situation because they're being asked to give the green light for a special use permit for a facility that records so far show has been a good neighbor even though they've been operating against city code, Warren Wilson, deputy city attorney, said.

"I'll be blunt," Wilson said. "There's no evidence" they've been a dangerous neighbor.

Jake Danible, Port of Hope controller visiting from Nampa, said the facility started taking in federal offenders to be eligible for federal funding. The contract being negotiated is for roughly $5 million to $6 million and without it, the facility wouldn't go back to just drug and alcohol treatment, rather it would close, affecting 35 jobs.

"It would probably shut down," he said during a recess at the meeting, adding at one point during testimony: "There are a lot of people's jobs on the line."

Port of Hope treats about 25 people in the facility, and seven who live outside it. They're all monitored around the clock, including with GPS. Earning jobs is part of their re-entry program.

But some neighbors said the possible risk from felony offenders is too great to have them so close to a school and residents.

"I'm in full support of Port of Hope, just not where it is," said Bill Rutherford, Fernan Elementary School principal. "We want our kids to feel safe."

State code prohibits sex offenders from living in a residence close to a school, but city staff will determine if that law applies to a facility that supervises them. The commission said it wants to study a more comprehensive number of Port of Hope clients who break the facility's rules and have to be sent back to prison. In the last year, that happened twice, according to Danible and Executive Director Tamara Chamberlain.

They also said that if they are given a sex offender, they let the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office determine if the offender can live in the facility. The KCSO has said no before.

The majority of the clientele remain drug and alcohol offenders.

In a letter Chamberlain sent to the city planning department prior to Tuesday's meeting, she said 85 percent of the facility's population has drug-related crimes. The remaining 15 percent consists of theft, mail fraud, pornography, crimes on an Indian reservation and assault-type offenders.

As strictly a drug and alcohol treatment facility, Port of Hope is allowed to operate in the Commercial 17 zone in which it sits. But as a felony re-entry program, it would need a special use permit.

According to Port of Hope's special use permit request, its current population is 25 beds. The special use permit would be for 21 to 43 beds. Of those under the permit, just over half would be housed in the facility while the others would be monitored at their homes.

Danible and Rutherford said after the meeting Port of Hope and the school district will meet to see if they can work to alleviate the school's concerns by attaching conditions to a potential permit.

The hearing will resume at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 13 in the Community Room of the public library.