By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The Lawrence Township Zoning Board of Adjustment was expected to listen to public comment and possibly take action on a controversial use variance application for a 38-bed residential drug and alcohol detoxification center as The Ledger went to press.
Last week, the zoning board members 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.
Jean Howarth, who also lives in the Federal Point age-restricted development, told the zoning board that the issue before the board is whether the proposed use is “inherently beneficial” to the community’s interests. The applicant has not made a case that this specific site is particularly suited for the proposed use, she said.
”The applicant has suggested that the proximity to the Mercer County Airport is a positive factor in the choice of location of the facility, (but) the board must recognize, as this community has, that this is a positive factor only for the tenant’s business. There is no benefit to the community,” Ms. Howarth said.
The detoxification process is difficult and requires constant supervision of patients, she said. It also requires the full-time presence of medical staff and occasional emergency medical intervention which is why it should be located near a hospital, and not near residential neighborhoods, she added.
Mary Baird, who also lives in the Federal Point development, also questioned the benefits of the detoxification facility to the community. She pointed out that if the use variance is granted, it would be a permanent change attached to that property.
”What will replace Sunrise Detox if they go out of business or terminate their lease? What will happen if Mr. Simone has two or three empty buildings,” Ms. Baird said of the applicant’s request to expand the use of the building from 12,000 square feet to 17,500 square feet. John Simone is a principal in the Simone Investment Group, which owns the office park.
Although Sunrise Detox Center operates a residential drug and alcohol detoxification facility in Stirling, that building which is a former house is set back from the street, said Charles Levine, who lives in the Federal Point development. He serves on the zoning board, but recused himself from hearing the application as a board member. He has been sitting in the audience and not on the dais with the zoning board members.
Mr. Levine, who was speaking as a citizen and not as a zoning board member, visited the site and said the Stirling facility is set in a residential neighborhood. The houses are located on large lots in a rural setting. He walked around the facility and observed that there was no sign of security cameras. No one came out to question him, he said.
Laura Raymond, who lives in the Federal Point development, also addressed the issue of security and the potential for violence initiated by the patients. She said she was married to an alcoholic and that the marriage ended after he assaulted her. Although the judge required her ex-husband to seek treatment for his alcoholism, he walked away from treatment, she said.
”If you are wondering why people are opposed (to the application), you might appreciate my experience. I still have a restraining order,” Ms. Raymond said. A court-issued restraining order prevents her ex-husband from having contact with her.
Mr. Levine and several neighbors who oppose the application also 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 and made it clear that they did not want this use literally in their back yards.
Several residents said that if Mr. Simone had set the rental price at a reasonable figure, the building would have been rented and there would have been no need to seek a use variance for this potential tenant. They cited advertisements placed in newspapers and periodicals by the Simone Investment Group for the office park.
Federal City Road resident George Ford, who is a former zoning board member, said that when he served on the zoning board, he was told that the board could not consider “hardship” such as the inability to rent a space as a reason to grant a use variance.
Mr. Ford told the zoning board that Mr. Simone has not complied with conditions imposed on projects that have been approved, such as recording a conservation easement on an office building on the same property at 100 Federal City Road, and the requirement to provide a Dumpster for recycling.
”I don’t think there are nay conditions you can impose (on this application) that makes it acceptable,” Mr. Ford said. But if the zoning board does grant a use variance, he said, it should require the installation of a 6-foot-tall security fence.
