Hearing for juvenile shelter continued
The Uniontown Zoning Hearing Board continued Thursday’s hearing into a request for permission to allow Adelphoi Village to operate a staff-secured juvenile shelter on the second floor of the Federal Building downtown. Board Chairman Richard Lee said a continuance was needed because a number of issues must be resolved before the board can render a decision.
The date when the hearing will resume was not set at Thursday’s session.
The major issue concerns the type of relief that is being sought by Adelphoi and the Fayette County commissioners, who have a tentative 10-year lease agreement with Adelphoi.
Board member Peter Hook said the board has an application for a special exception to the city’s zoning ordinance.
The application asks for permission to run a group home in the Federal Building, which is in the city’s central business district.
The ordinance has no provisions that allow the board to grant special exceptions for group homes in the central business district, which is designated C-2, Hook said.
County solicitor Joseph E. Ferens Jr. agreed, saying a special exception for a group home in the central business district is “clearly not permitted.”
He said he wanted to amend the petition to request a use variance, but he was advised by board solicitor Gary Altman that he could simply request a use variance at Thursday’s hearing.
Altman said testimony from the principals involved in the matter would determine if a use variance or a special exception would be the proper form of relief needed.
Testimony will also determine what type of facility is being proposed. Altman indicated that the application alone does not clearly define the proposed shelter.
“It depends on what they’re asking for,” Altman said. “We’ll take testimony to determine what the facility will be. I don’t know if a use variance or a special exception is needed.”
He said state law allows the board to consider use variances anytime a proposed use of a building is not permitted in a particular zoning designation.
Hook said the board should not make a decision on a use variance when it has an application for a special exception.
He said he researched special exceptions in the Fayette County law library before the hearing, but did not study use variances because he didn’t know that is what he would be considering.
“I’m not happy with that,” said Hook, the former Fayette County district attorney. “I don’t know what I’m acting upon.”
The first person to testify was Fayette County Commissioner Ron Nehls, who said the proposed lease between Adelphoi and the county has not yet been signed.
He said the commissioners obtained the deed to the building from the federal government after they learned last year that the post office in the building was going to close. Nehls said the commissioners wanted to save the downtown post office and use the rest of the building for county offices.
However, the deed contained restrictions on how the building could be used. “Justice” was among the permitted uses, so the county’s juvenile probation office was relocated to the structure, Nehls said.
The commissioners felt that a sheltered care facility for juveniles would be a logical tenant, so requests for proposals to operate such a facility were mailed to many providers, he said.
Adelphoi submitted the lone response, Nehls said.
Responding to a question from Adelphoi attorney Dan Hewitt, Nehls said the county would own the building and Adelphoi would run the shelter.
Nehls said the lease will not be signed unless the ZHB approves the required variance or exception.
Adelphoi CEO Larry Breitenstein also testified about how the shelter would operate.
He said up to 12 male or female minors ranging from 12 to 18 years old would stay in the shelter.
It would not serve as a detention center for delinquent juveniles, but delinquents could end up there through placements from children and youth service agencies or juvenile probation offices.