PA: Judge erred on Perry Twp. proposed methadone clinic
Stephanie Almeida
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Judge: Board erred on Perry Twp. proposed methadone clinic
By Chris Foreman
TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, February 2, 2007 A judge has vacated a special-exception permit for a proposed methadone treatment facility in Perry Township and remanded the zoning application to the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board for reconsideration under guidelines in the county's new zoning ordinance. In a 14-page opinion filed Thursday, Judge Steve Leskinen said the zoning board erred in a May 2005 decision by considering a methadone treatment facility as a medical "clinic" under the terms of the county's 1968 zoning ordinance. After more than four years of revisions, county commissioners unanimously passed a new zoning ordinance last fall that took effect on Nov. 1. "Methadone treatment facilities were essentially unknown when the previous ordinance was written," Leskinen said in the opinion. "If the previous ordinance was understood to include a 'methadone treatment facility' as an ordinary medical 'clinic,' there would have been no need for the specific definition and specific provisions regarding a 'methadone treatment facility' in the new ordinance." The judge said the board failed to "include appropriate references" to the former zoning ordinance and the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code in awarding the permit. Perry Township and Frazier school officials opposed property owner Lawrence Bujdos' proposal to sell a former tractor repair and sales shop to Louis E. Waller and Steve Shaner so they could operate the methadone facility along Route 51, near Rehoboth Church Road. Township supervisors complained in an appeal that the facility's operators failed to offer a traffic study for a business that would have an estimated 250 patients per month stopping in for 15-minute visits between the hours of 5:30 and 11 a.m. Township and school officials and residents worried about the legality of methadone users driving from the facility, although Leskinen said laws for driving under the influence exempt "medically prescribed" substances, such as methadone. Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat addiction to opiates, including heroin. Still, Leskinen said the zoning board specifically should consider traffic issues on the four-lane highway near the proposed facility. "Either a traffic study, or approval of PennDOT representatives would appear to be appropriate as conditions of any (permit) approval," the judge said.
Chris Foreman can be reached at cfor...@tribweb.com or 724-439-4229 x2401.
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Stephanie Almeida
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