Zoning board tables action on Suboxone clinic
Waynesburg zoning board tabled action on a challenge to a zoning permit issued to a Suboxone clinic that plans to open in Victoria Square.
The Waynesburg Zoning Hearing Board
WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg merchants who oppose the opening of a Suboxone clinic in Victoria Square on High Street will have to wait another month to learn whether their challenge to the issuance of the clinic’s zoning permit is successful.
After hearing testimony Monday, Waynesburg Zoning Hearing Board voted to table its decision until next month.
Though representatives of the clinic, The Bridge into Wellness Center, attended the hearing and answered questions posed by the board and audience, the board tabled action saying it wanted detailed information regarding the clinic’s operations on the zoning application.
Information included clinic hours, the number of patients to be served and the size of the facility were not provided to the board as part of the clinic’s permit application, board solicitor Bill Hook said.
The center received a zoning permit last month from the borough zoning officer, who determined it met requirements of the zoning ordinance under which a doctor’s office is a permitted use in a B-1 zoning district.
The ordinance also allows for a permit to be challenged within 30 days, requiring a decision from the zoning board.
The permit issued to The Bridge into Wellness was challenged by members of Waynesburg Merchants Guild, who maintain the clinic would not have adequate parking and did not qualify as a doctor’s office because it would provide service to many more patients than a doctor’s office in one day.
Waynesburg zoning officer Bryan Cumberledge said he issued the permit believing the clinic met requirements of the ordinance. It will have 17 parking spaces behind the building and a doctor who will be seeing patients, he said.
However, most of the merchant’s concerns were from experiences with an existing clinic that operates down the street they said brought an unwanted element into the borough.
Kristy Vliet of 5 Kidz Kandy spoke of an incident in which people “stung out” on drugs entered her store from the clinic and used profanities in front of customers.
“It’s bad,” she said. “I’ve had an increase in shoplifting and a decrease in business on Saturdays (when the other clinic is opened) to the point I’m ready to close my store.”
Councilmamn Mark Fischer also spoke against the clinic. If the clinic saw 100 patients a day, as some said it would, it would dramatically increase the borough’s existing parking problems, he said.
Fischer also questioned whether the clinic was actually providing treatment and not just issuing prescriptions for a drug that an addict would sell to make for money to buy heroin.
Marissa Terry, a partner in The Bridge into Wellness, said she sympathized with the merchant’s concerns. “What you are saying is disturbing. I wouldn’t like it,” she said.
Terry said her company provides much more structure for patients than what was described by the merchants and has a security guard on site.
The center, manned by a doctor, nurse and a recovery specialist, would probably see about 30 patients a day and be open once or twice a month. Patents are required to be in addiction counseling, she said.
Following testimony, Terry also said she would be willing to meet with the merchants to discuss any of their concerns.
Though the board issued no decision, board chairman Adam Chapman noted several times the board was not there to consider concerns related to another clinic, and must make its decision based on the zoning ordinance.