KTVB

This site south of Idaho City could soon be a home for troubled teens.

IDAHO CITY - In a quiet community south of Idaho City off Highway 21 sits what was once a tree farm. If approved by Boise County, it could become a residential treatment facility for teens called Alamar Ranch.

Organizers of the project say it will begin with one house that will hold 12 male student. They would sleep, eat, and go to school in cabins, staying up to a year.

When it's totally finished, more than 100 teens could live at Alamar Ranch.

Besides offices, a gym, cafeteria and additional school rooms would be built. Alamar Ranch would serve teens from around the country who are dysfunctional, depressed, or have experimented with drugs and alcohol.

"If they are psycotic or anti social, they have a history of angry, agressive behavior or even if they have a history of being a sexual predator or having sexually acted out on someone else they would not be accepted here," said executive director Amy Jeppesen.

However, people in neighboring residential areas are against the creation of Alamar Ranch. A petition is circulating, and so far hundreds of signatures have been collected.

Many of those people gathered at the Osprey subdivision to explains their concerns.

They feel there isn't enough ambulance and fire service in the county to handle the additional population. Another worry is that Alamar Ranch is just too close to other residential property, creating a problem if kids escape.

"Our concern and nightmare would be to have Alamar Ranch staff going though our neighborhood with floodlights in the middle of the night looking for runners," said Brian Bulow.

Alamar admits sometimes teens take off, but the say that would not present a hazard to neighbors.

"The type of students that we are taking are not the kind of kids that are going to break into houses and hurt people, those are not the kind of kids that will be here," said Jeppesen.

Ranch offcials says they are working with local fire and law enforcement to address concerns, but opponents maintain it should not be built.

The Boise County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Alamar Ranch application March first at 6:30 p.m.

Until then, they are not commenting on the proposal.