APPEAL OF METHADONE CLINIC RULING DENIED

ABINGDON - A challenge to the earlier denial of zoning approval for a
methadone clinic in southern Washington County was quickly denied by the
county's Board of Zoning Appeals Monday night.

Clinic representatives did not make any argument and County Administrator
Mark Reeter said he believed that none attended the meeting. The board
ruled unanimously to reject the clinic's appeal.

In December, representatives of South Carolina-based Appalachian Treatment
Services applied to the county to open a methadone drug treatment center on
Old Dominion Road near the Bristol city limits.

The proposed center angered some residents of the nearby Lowry Hills
neighborhood. Residents said they feared that the clinic would bring crime
and traffic and would devalue their property.

Reeter, acting as the county zoning administrator, denied the application
in February, noting that the building intended to be used for the clinic
should not have been there in the first place. Methadone clinics, he added,
were not allowed or specified anywhere as allowed uses in the zoning ordinance.

The buildings on the property where Appalachian Treatment Services wanted
to house the clinic are modular homes. They were only allowed there as
display units and as an office for a modular home sales business, he said.
Once that business closed, he said, the buildings should have been
disassembled and hauled off the lot.

He ordered their removal in a February letter to the property owner.

"Manufactured homes on a sales lot are product," he said. "They are not
permanent. They are no more permanent than cars parked on an automobile
sales lot. We expect them to be removed."

He said he did not know the home sales business was closed until he got a
letter asking that he approve a methadone clinic on the site.

Board of Zoning Appeals member Joe Lyle said it was clear that Reeter made
the right decision.

"The business for which they served is now closed and (the houses) were to
be removed," Lyle said.

Lyle and fellow board member Bob Vineyard said that whether Reeter properly
interpreted the zoning ordinance as it pertained to methadone clinics was
irrelevant.

First, they said, there is no legal building on the property to house the
clinic.

A new state law sponsored by Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, also made the
issue moot. The law prohibits clinics from locating within a half-mile of a
daycare center or school. The property on Old Dominion Road is within a
half-mile of John S. Battle High School.