Methadone clinic appeal dismissed
An appellate judge has quashed an appeal filed by the would-be operators of a methadone clinic in Perry Township, paving the way for the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board to hear the case for a second time. The board granted a special exception for the clinic in 2005, but earlier this year Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen vacated that and ordered the board to re-evaluate the request under updated zoning regulations.
Perry Township Supervisor A.J. Boni said township residents are ready to rally when the board has a second hearing.
“They might as well get the State Theatre prepared because that’s probably where we’re going to end up,” he said, referring to the large turnout he anticipates.
Stephen J. Shaner and Louis E. Waller filed the appeal in February, following Leskinen’s ruling.
Shaner is involved in medical services and Waller is a general contractor. The men wanted to use a vacant building on a 5-acre tract of land at Route 51 and Rehoboth Church Road for the clinic.
After zoning hearings in 2005, the county’s board granted the special exception for Shaner and Waller to operate the clinic in the township. The township appealed and earlier this year, Leskinen vacated the decision and remanded the case to the zoning hearing board.
In doing so, Leskinen indicated that the zoning hearing board was relying upon a zoning ordinance written in 1968 that did not conceive methadone clinics. Leskinen instead ordered the board to use the updated zoning code, adopted in November 2006, to decide the case.
The updated code has a special section that deals with methadone clinics.
At the 2005 hearing, the interest of the township’s nearly 2,800 residents were represented by solicitor Donald J. McCue
In addition to the township, officials from the Frazier School District opposed the clinic.
Township officials have pointed out that the intersection where the clinic would be located is a bad one and also indicated that there is no water and sewerage service at the proposed site.
“There’s a major safety issue with traffic access,” Boni said, noting that emergency personnel are frequently called to that intersection for accidents.
Shaner and Waller previously indicated they hoped to bring both sewerage and water service to the clinic, but said the clinic could operate if neither utility was available. That area of the township does not have either service.
The proposal for the clinic indicated it was to employ between 12 and 15 people and see patients daily from 5:30 to 11:30 a.m. Shaner also told the zoning hearing board that security measures would be in place to ensure that there are no problems at the clinic.
The Commonwealth Court appeal of Leskinen’s opinion was docketed Feb. 28 in Commonwealth Court. A hearing on the case was initially scheduled for April 17 but was continued at the request of the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board. It was rescheduled for Wednesday.
Judge Barry E. Feudale entered the ruling Wednesday. Feudale is a senior Northumberland County common pleas judge and one of two senior judges who serves occasionally in the Commonwealth Court.
The online docket did not indicate why Feudale quashed the appeal.
Fayette County is already home to one methadone clinic, located off Route 51 in North Union Township. Addiction Specialists Inc. has operated at Mountain View Plaza since 1999. In 2005, operators of the clinic received approval from the zoning hearing board to add an inpatient residential treatment center for drug and alcohol addicts to the operation.