By Lea Kahn
More than 15 residents lined up last week in an effort to sway the Lawrence Township Zoning Board of Adjustment as it wrapped up a controversial application for a use variance to permit a residential drug and alcohol detoxification center in an office park on Federal City Road.
But the board won’t make its decision until a special June 22 meeting, which is intended to allow the board time to deliberate whether to grant the variance sought by The Simone Investment Group and Sunrise Detox Center.
The zoning board opened up the June 1 meeting for public comment, after listening to months of testimony from the applicant, as well as questions from opponents. The Simone Investment Group wants to locate the Sunrise Detox Center in a vacant 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. Sunrise Detox Center wants to open a 38-bed facility in the 17,200-square-foot building.
The opponents said they were concerned about crime and traffic in their neighborhoods the Federal Point age-restricted development and the Federal Hill single-family-home subdivision while a few residents spoke in favor of the proposed drug and alcohol detoxification center.
A Ewing Township woman, who requested that her name be withheld, held up photographs of her husband and her daughter both of whom had substance abuse problems. Her husband committed suicide, but her 22-year-old daughter has been seeking help for her heroin addiction problem, the woman said. She has been in and out of nine treatment facilities, but none in Mercer County.
The woman disputed opponents’ assertions that there are enough beds nearby in treatment facilities for those who want to free themselves of their addictions. She also said that people who are undergoing detoxification go to the facility for help.
”They are extremely sick,” she said. “They sleep a lot, they don’t have visitors and they are very weak. Running rampant to rob (a house or a person) is the last thing on their mind. They are sick patients, not animals.”
Drug and alcohol addiction is no different than cancer, she said. Both are progressive and both can be fatal. She pleaded with the zoning board to “please don’t let the ignorance of others jeopardize the lives of our loved ones.”
Todd Price, a former Lawrence resident who now divides his time between Hopewell and Manchester townships, said drugs and alcohol are a major problem in the U.S. and that abuse of prescription drugs will be the downfall of this country.
Mr. Price, a former drug addict and a former alcoholic, said treatment centers such as Sunrise Detox Center are needed on every street corner in every town. He said many Lawrence residents have died or been affected by substance abuse, and they could have used a place like Sunrise Detox Center.
Darrah Lane resident Edward Wiznitzer told the zoners that Sunrise Detox Center is a specialized medical practice, and the fact that its treatment plan typically takes nearly six days to complete should not change the fact that it is a medical practice that is permitted in the PO zone.
Mr. Wiznitzer also argued that an “inherently beneficial use” is one that is considered of value to the community because it serves the public good. He said the state Legislature has acknowledged that “the social and personal anguish of drug addiction is a grave public concern.”
”I could tell you personally of dozens of local residents, from 17 years old to 70-something years old, who have had such treatment, or needed it, or have avoided treatment because a place like Sunrise is not nearby,” Mr. Wiznitzer said.
He reminded the zoning board that the office building could accommodate up to a dozen professionals whose deliveries and client traffic would exceed the amount generated by Sunrise Detox Center. They could be treating addicts as outpatients, with “streams of clients” coming and going all day long without supervision.
But other residents repeated their opposition to the use variance application.
Ewing resident Robert Blazer said he lives near the Federal City Road office park. It is not so much about the Simone Investment Group and Sunrise Detox Center as it is about a building that should be leased to a tenant who complies with the zoning ordinance, he said.
The zoning board is in a unique position, because its decision will have an impact on residents in three townships Lawrence, Ewing and Hopewell, whose borders nearly converge on Federal City Road, Mr. Blazer said. The zoning should remain for its intended use, he said.
Frank Buckley, of Karena Lane, said it had been suggested that anyone who has had a family member who has addiction issues would feel differently about the proposal. He said he does have a relative who has problems, but he does not feel any differently about the application in that it should not be located in a residential neighborhood.
Barnett Road resident Falk Engel said an “inherently beneficial use” is one that benefits society, such as hospitals, houses of worship and affordable housing. The common denominator is that they serve the public good, and for the most part, they are nonprofit groups, he said.
Some for-profit hospitals or nursing homes accept Medicare and Medicaid patients, but Sunrise Detox Center’s owner has made it clear that those patients would not be accepted because it would “bring down” the desired level of clientele, Mr. Engel said. A profit-making venture “that abjures meeting minimum social needs” cannot be deemed an inherently beneficial use, he said.
Marvin Vanhise, of Federal City Road, pointed out that a use variance “runs with the land” and that if Sunrise Detox Center leaves, another drug and alcohol treatment center could move into the office building.
Wrapping up his client’s use variance application, attorney Christopher Costa said Sunrise Detox Center is a medical use, which is permitted in the PO zone, and the definition of a medical use does not change even though clients stay overnight.
Sunrise Detox Center’s operators are also aware of residents’ concerns about safety, and staff will be trained, Mr. Costa said. Security cameras also will be installed. The center also will have less traffic impact than another use that is permitted, he said.
”You can decide on the facts, not speculation,” Mr. Costa told the zoning board.

