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Uniontown Zoning Hearing Board approves request for detox facility

By Mike Tony Mtony@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

Pictured is the site of a detoxification facility proposed by Wellness Recovery on Veech Street in Uniontown. Wellness Recovery’s request for zoning approval was OK’d by the Uniontown Zoning Hearing Board at its meeting Thursday.

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Pictured is 322 Connellsville Street in Uniontown, a site proposed by Keystone Recovery Solutions for a sober house. The city zoning hearing board denied Keystone Recovery Solutions's request for zoning approval to operate a sober house there Thursday.

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Representing the Veech Street Concerned Citizens group, attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. (left) questioned Wellness Recovery's request for zoning approval to operate a detoxification facility on Veech Street near the home of Joyce Sontheimer (right), whose late husband Gary once had a medical office at the site of what will become Wellness Recovery.

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Speaking on behalf of Wellness Recovery LLC throughout Thursday's Uniontown Zoning Hearing Board meeting was Dr. Scott Tracy, co-owner of the limited liability company, detailing the company's plans for a detoxification facility on Veech Street.

The Uniontown City Zoning Hearing Board approved one zoning request aimed at combating local addiction and denied another at a lengthy hearing.

Most of the hearing consisted of the board hearing Wellness Recovery LLC’s request for a special exception, use variance and substance validity challenge allowing a detoxification facility at 7-9 Veech Street in what is a “R-1” low-density residential zoning district.

That request was approved in a 4-0 vote that followed roughly two and a half hours of testimony from both Wellness Recovery representatives and neighborhood residents pleading against the petitioners’ zoning request.

The zoning hearing board additionally denied a request by Keystone Recovery Solutions for a special exception to operate a sober house on Connellsville Street, also in a 4-0 vote.

Speaking on behalf of Wellness Recovery throughout the hearing was Dr. Scott Tracy, co-owner of the limited liability company, which holds a lease on the property owned by M.O. Common Properties LLC.

Tracy said Wellness Recovery is state-licensed to be a detoxification and short-term treatment facility and will have seven beds upstairs, where initial detoxification treatment is to be offered, and 12 beds downstairs for less intensive care. Wellness Recovery is licensed to keep clients for up to 30 days, he said.

Patients must be pre-approved through insurance and will not be admitted if they have a criminal record, Tracy said.

Tracy repeatedly stressed the center would not offer Suboxone or methadone to its patients, men and women 18 or older.

“Our job is to get people off of medicines like Suboxone, off of medicines like methadone,” he explained.

The Uniontown Planning Commission had previously voted against the rezoning request and referred the request to city council, which in July denied Wellness Recovery’s request to amend the city’s zoning ordinance to extend the “C-1” local business zoning district to properties at 7 and 9 Veech St.

After the meeting, Tracy said the next step is awaiting affiliation with insurance providers. He said Wellness Recovery could open after that process is complete, potentially after a 30-day period.

“We’re excited to start saving lives,” Tracy said.

“This is something we all need in the community now,” zoning hearing board member Jeff DiMaio said. “That’s a fact. This is something we’ve got to head off … The problem is nobody wants it around (addicts), but everybody agrees this is something we need.”

The board heard from several neighborhood residents who opposed the request, saying they agreed with the treatment goals but didn’t want the facility in their neighborhood, on a site that once housed a medical office of Dr. Gary Sontheimer, who died last year.

Sontheimer’s widow Joyce opposed Wellness Recovery’s request, as did the Rev. Pete Malik.

“I believe in churches,” Malik said. “I don’t want them on my street … This is a quiet neighborhood. How many of you would want to have this right next to your house?”

Representing the Veech Street Concerned Citizens group recently formed by residents living near the street, attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. argued on behalf of neighbors opposing Wellness Recovery’s request, while Tracy and fellow Wellness Recovery co-owner Robert Baker were represented by attorney Krista Staley.

Several residents expressed concern, recalling a Suboxone operation based on the property had been shut down by the city last year.

Under questioning from Heneks, Tracy said Wellness Recovery had offered its facility to a doctor specializing in addiction medicine while he was in the process of securing a permanent facility in Connellsville. Staley emphasized that that addiction medicine physician was not involved with Wellness Recovery and wouldn’t be practicing there.

“I think you’ll find that we’re good neighbors,” Tracy said.

The board denied the request of Keystone Recovery Solutions, a Pennsylvania nonprofit, for a special exception in a “C-1” local business zoning district to operate a sober house at 322 Connellsville St. Keystone Recovery Solutions President Brant Copple said the facility would have two house managers overseeing residents.

Mayor Ed Fike, owner of nearby property along Connellsville Street, told the board that he didn’t think that having the sober house across from a school was a good idea.

The proposed sober house would be directly across from a preschool. Lafayette Elementary School is next to the preschool.

Copple said after the meeting that he plans to appeal the board’s decision.

Zoning hearing board Solicitor Ewing Newcomer said that both of the board’s decisions made Thursday could be appealed, with appeals to be filed with the Fayette County Court within 30 days.

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