By Lea Kahn
The fourth meeting in a series of public hearings by the township Zoning Board of Adjustment on a controversial application for a drug and alcohol detoxification center is slated for Wednesday night at the Municipal Building.
The meeting, which starts at 7:30 p.m., will be held in the Township Council chambers at the Municipal Building. The Simone Investment Group LLC is seeking a use variance to open a residential detoxification center at 100 Federal City Road.
A use variance for the proposed 38-bed facility is needed because a residential substance abuse detoxification center is not a permitted use in the Professional Office zone. The property in question, which consists of three office buildings, is located in the PO zone.
At the zoning board’s Jan. 19 meeting, the board and about 80 audience members listened to Warren Connelly, the executive director of Sunrise Detox Center’s New Jersey facility in Stirling, describe the need for the detoxification center.
Mr. Connelly testified at the zoning board’s Jan. 19 meeting that in the 12 months since the 21-bed Stirling facility opened, there have been 700 to 800 admissions to the residential detoxification center including 137 from central New Jersey.
Of those 137 patients, 10 were from Mercer County including one from Lawrence Township and the rest were from Burlington, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset counties, Mr. Connelly said.
From 2008 to 2010, there were 151 patients including 20 Mercer County residents from New Jersey who received treatment at Sunrise Detox Center’s Florida facility, Mr. Connelly said. This compares to 137 New Jersey patients in one year who used the Stirling facility, he said. There is a need for residential detoxification centers, such as theirs, in this state, he added.
Noting that he has been in the “recovery industry” for many years, Mr. Connelly said that it is well known that there is a need for residential detoxification centers in New Jersey. “It was not some big, complicated marketing study” that illustrated the need for the facility, he said.
”We have been sold out every night except for two nights (at the Stirling facility),” he said. “As a businessman, I want to get two more facilities in New Jersey (in central and southern New Jersey).”
Mr. Connelly said he has had experience in seeking out suitable locations for residential detoxification centers. The key is to find a municipality that is “friendly” and/or a property owner who is willing to host the center, he said, adding that “it is very difficult.”
But Sunrise Detox Centers, which is based in Florida, has found a willing property owner in John Simone, who is a principal in the Simone Investment Group LLC. Sunrise Detox Center officials had considered many sites, but the Lawrence Township search is the only one that has “borne fruit,” he said.
When Karena Lane resident Mark Rudnick pressed Mr. Connelly for details about the site search, he replied that Sunrise Detox Center officials had considered several properties in Hunterdon and Somerset counties, but “we got shot down.”
Asked by Federal City Road resident Marvin Vanhise whether he had spoken to Lawrence Township officials about the proposed use, Mr. Connelly replied that he had not. He said he approached the property owner. He said he became aware of Mr. Simone, who is a commercial real estate broker as well as a property owner, after he saw the broker’s name on another property.
Mr. Connelly acknowledged that “everybody is scared” of the proposed use, because they think “we have a bunch of criminals and lowlifes coming in.”
”But that’s not what you get,” he said. “It’s people that need help. People are being short-sighted in not willing to take on the fight (to find locations for a residential detoxification center). That’s the reason why there is a dearth of facilities.”

