CITY COULD FAST-TRACK ORDINANCE ON METH CLINICS

BRISTOL, Va. - The City Council could take pre-emptive action next week
that would make it easier to keep a methadone clinic out of the city.

The council and the Planning Commission on Tuesday could fast-track a
proposed change to the city's zoning ordinance that would require special
exemptions for any substitution drug-treatment program involving methadone
or other substances.

Mayor Jerry Wolfe said Friday that Bristol had not received requests or
notification of any methadone clinic wanting to come to the city, but the
move came amid a pending request to open one in neighboring Washington County.

"What has happened in Washington County has made us aware of the
deficiencies in state law and how localities are notified," Wolfe said.

Washington County's county administrator, Mark Reeter, may decide this
month whether to grant permission under the county's zoning law for a
clinic on Old Dominion Road, near Lowry Hills subdivision and within a
half-mile of John S. Battle High School.

The county's zoning ordinance does not specify that substance-abuse clinics
are among the permitted or special-exemption uses in areas zoned B-2
general business - the same zoning as the Old Dominion Road site.

But the county ordinance does permit drugstores and pharmacies; nursing
homes and personal-care facilities without on-site residency; physicians',
dentists' and other health practitioners' offices; and social-services offices.

Opposition to the clinic, which would be operated by Appalachian Treatment
Services of Greenville, S.C., has come from individual supervisors, the
county School Board and Sheriff's Office, Lowry Hills residents and state
legislators from the county and Bristol.

City Planner Shari Brown said Bristol's current zoning ordinance allows
methadone clinics in areas zoned B-3 business, which allows clinics, and
office-institutional, which allows hospitals.

City Attorney Walt Bressler, who drafted the proposal, said the amendment
would require a special exemption for substitution treatment clinics at a
hospital whether it established a clinic within the hospital building or in
a new building on its campus.

Under the proposed draft, Brown said, the City Council would have to decide
whether to grant a special exemption for a clinic based on whether the
clinic would be an appropriate use for the zoned area, would be necessary
to the welfare of the city's residents, would pose any danger to city
residents or would cause a decrease in value of property in the area where
the clinic would operate.

The council and the Planning Commission plan to hold a joint public hearing
on the amendment at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the city offices on Cumberland
Street. Following that hearing, the council may consider the amendment.