LAWRENCE: Zoner slate another detox center meeting

By Lea Kahn
   A special zoning board meeting, which may be the final meeting on a controversial use variance application for a 38-bed residential drug and alcohol detoxification center, has been set for Wednesday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building.
   The Zoning Board of Adjustment listened to five hours’ worth of testimony and comment from opponents of the Sunrise Detox Center, planned for a vacant 17,200-square-foot office building at 100 Federal City Road. A use variance is needed because a residential drug and alcohol detoxification center is not a permitted use in the Professional Office zone.
   Charles Connell, a former mayor and Township Committee member who lives in the adjacent Federal Point age-restricted development, objected to the proposed residential detoxification center because it should not be placed in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
   Mr. Connell, who served from 1958 to 1970, said the township’s Master Plan should be upheld and that residents also should be able to rely on the Land Use Ordinance. The Master Plan sets out the vision that a municipality has for itself, and the LUO implements it.
   Other residents said they were not opposed to a residential drug and alcohol detoxification center, but they agreed with Mr. Connell that it should not be placed in a residential neighborhood. It will not benefit Lawrence Township residents, they said.
   Several residents who opposed the proposed use pointed to the commercial kitchen — and the numerous food deliveries — that would be needed to serve three meals daily to the 38 residents, as well as staff members, seven days per week. One resident said the commercial kitchen, which he compared to a restaurant, would emit cooking odors in the neighborhood.
   Opposition also came from several Karena Lane residents whose properties abut the office park and the building that would house the detoxification center. They expressed concern about the possible threat that the occupants might pose to their families if they wandered off the grounds.