Baldwin Township commissioners voted last night to deny an application by Mercy Behavioral Health to operate a residential mental health facility in a building that previously housed an assisted living facility for the elderly.

Commissioners voted, 4-0, with one abstention, to deny the request for the conditional use permit Mercy would have needed to operate the facility at the former Rolling Hills Manor Assisted Living facility.

Commissioner Nick Pellegrino abstained from voting because, before he was appointed to the commission, he spoke out against the facility during a hearing held by the township planning commission on the application.

Mercy had filed an application with the township in September to open a long-term structured residence and an extended acute-care program, both with 16 patients, in the Rolling Hills facility. The center was expected to house some former Mayview Hospital patients and employ some of the former hospital staff.

Mercy officials contended the program was essentially a nursing home, which the township had permitted previously as a use for the building.

Mercy attorney Arnold Horowitz said last night it was too soon to tell if his organization would appeal the decision to Common Pleas Court since he had not seen the commission's written findings of fact that were used to make the decision.

That document will be forwarded to Mercy officials today, said Baldwin Township solicitor Thomas McDermott. He said Mercy has 30 days from the time it receives the findings of fact to file an appeal.

In November, the planning commission voted unanimously to recommend that the commissioners not approve a conditional-use permit for the Mercy facility. The commissioners then held a series of public hearings, each lasting several hours, before meeting in private to deliberate on the matter, Mr. McDermott said. Numerous residents spoke in opposition to the facility before the planning commission and commissioners.

Though he did not have the findings of fact document available last night, Mr. McDermott said the basic reasons that the commissioners denied Mercy's application were because they did not believe the proposed facility fit the definition of a nursing home, that it was not good for the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood, was not compatible with existing uses and did not fit the character of the neighborhood.