The Baldwin Township Planning Commission has voted unanimously to recommend that the commissioners not approve a conditional-use permit for Mercy Behavioral Health to open a residential mental health facility in the township.

But a quick decision by the township commissioners doesn't appear to be forthcoming since the first part of the commissioners' public hearing on the application Monday lasted nearly five hours with only three of Mercy's 10 witnesses getting to make their presentations.

Early next week, the commissioners will set two additional dates for continuations of the public hearing.

Monday's meeting, held in a packed Castle Shannon Fire Hall, more resembled a legal proceeding in a courtroom than a public hearing on a development.

As each of Mercy's representatives spoke, they were peppered with questions from township solicitor Thomas McDermott and attorney John Arminas, who was hired by a group of Baldwin Township residents to represent them.

Much of the questioning surrounded the state definitions and regulations regarding nursing homes, assisted living residences and long-term structured residences.

Mercy officials have defined their program as a long-term structured residence, but Mercy attorney Arnold Horowitz has argued that the facility would be similar to a nursing home and that Baldwin Township's R-1 residential zoning permits nursing homes as a conditional use.

The proposed site of the mental health facility is the former Rolling Hills Manor Assisted Living facility on Newport Drive. That building was once an elementary school that served the residential neighborhood where it is located.

The Rolling Hills facility closed in August 2007, and Mercy filed an application for a conditional use permit with Baldwin Township on Sept. 19 to use the building as an inpatient mental health facility that would operate two programs for a total of 32 patients.

Project architect Frank Golba said Mercy would spend about $1 million to renovate the former personal care home.

Mercy would operate a 16-bed acute care program that would house patients for up to six months.

In addition, Mercy would rent space to the state for a 16-bed long-term structured residence program for patients with serious mental illnesses who would live there for extended periods as part of their therapy.

The patients would be those who suffer from such chronic mental illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. They would be referred to the program from hospitals but no longer would need inpatient hospital care, Mercy officials have said.

The goal of both programs would be to eventually return the patients to independent lives. The state programis expected to include some former Mayview State Hospital employees and patients.

Plans call for the state program to last for two years and then be turned over to a private contractor, possibly Mercy Behavioral Health.

The facility would have secured windows and doors, a 24-hour nursing and security staff, and a psychiatrist on call 24 hours a day.

At meetings before the Baldwin Township Planning Commission, dozens of residents took to the microphone to oppose the location of the facility in their residential neighborhood. They expressed fears for the safety of their families, noting that a ball field and school bus stop were nearby, and they predicted that property values would decline. The planners voted Nov. 12 to recommend rejection of the application.

Among the list of speakers on Mercy's behalf Monday were some residents of other communities where Mercy has residential mental health facilities. But they did not get a chance to speak before the hearing was shut down for the evening, said Kimberly Flaherty, a Mercy spokeswoman.

Those residents are expected to return for the continued sessions of the hearing to tell Baldwin Township residents that the facilities have posed no threats to their neighborhoods, Ms. Flaherty said.