Although some members asked pointed questions about the stability of residents of a proposed housing project and its effect on the area, Farrell Planning Commission approved the project Tuesday.

A city official, noting the poor quality of the soil, said if Independence Park Inc. were not allowed to build 10 apartments along Hamilton Avenue between Federal and Union streets, it's unlikely anyone ever will build anything there.

Independence Park, a corporation set up by project sponsor Mercer County Community Action Agency, wants to put two apartment buildings at the site, one with six apartments, and the other with four.

The apartments would be available to adults with chronic metal illness who can live on their own.

Community Counseling Center would oversee residents' vocational and education training, socialization and family support, but would have no day-to-day supervision of the residents, which worried commission member Paula Gargano.

"Who will help these people if there's a relapse?" she asked.

"It's not a group that needs 24-hour supervision," said Brad Gleason, director of planning for Housing and Neighborhood Development Service, Erie, project consultant. "It's not a group that needs two-hour supervision. They're highly functioning. They're primarily employed."

Ron Errett, executive director of the action agency, said 50 percent of all Americans have mental illness, most likely chronic depression.

"If they were sitting here in a larger crowd among us, I would defy you to identify them in any way, shape or form," Errett said.

Upon learning that Community Counseling and the mental health system would refer possible tenants to the action agency, and that some would be coming from state hospitals, commission Chairman R. Jerome Miller said, "This is stereotyped as a nuthouse."

Errett said he can't control what others will say, but people who are like those who will live in the Independence Park development live in other agency housing and have elicited no complaints from neighbors.

"We treat every tenant as a tenant," he said, promising to be strict with those who do not pay their rent or who violate the lease in some way.

"We evict people, sometimes with the sheriff standing there," he said.

Miller asked if anyone would want to live near the development, and Chuck Scalise, HANDS executive director, responded that his projects tend to raise property values in an area.

Gary Cervone, the agency's administrative officer, said many prospective residents are living in group homes only because they only have no other place to go. Others are living with family members or together, but want to live on their own.

Many will earn only $500 a month from government assistance, meaning they could afford no more than $150 a month for rent, Errett said.

"The 10 we will have will have little chance of getting public housing," said Errett, noting that single men are the last people on the public housing waiting list.

Commission member the Rev. Robert Chavers said he doubted Independence Park residents would cause any trouble.

"You'll probably be getting more problems out of that playground than these," he said of the nearby Emerson Avenue Playground.

The agency received a $717,000 federal grant for construction, but will seek other funding due to problems revealed in the soil test. Soil suitable for building can be found only by digging down 23 feet, Errett said.

Builders will have to build caissons to hold up concrete slabs on which the two buildings will be built, said Errett.

Errett noted that Farrell City Council chose the site for the development, and he wants to do what he can to make the site work.

City zoning officer Mark Yerskey asked the commission to work to make the project happen.

"We have a great opportunity to develop a parcel that is damn near undevelopable," he said. "I don't know another developer who is willing to build on it."

The project application will come before the commission again before city council ultimately makes the decision whether it will proceed.