LIFE CENTER FILES LAWSUIT TO OPEN METHADONE CLINIC

At Issue Is The Interpretation Of Roanoke County's Zoning Of The Property.

Three days after a Roanoke County supervisor said "see you in court," that
is where a controversial methadone clinic has taken the county.

In court papers filed Wednesday against the Board of Supervisors, the Life
Center of Galax asked a Circuit Court judge to rule that it has a vested
right to open a methadone clinic at Colonial Avenue and Ogden Road.

That right, the drug treatment center maintains, is based on steps it took
- - which include signing a lease and applying for a state license - after
being told by the county in June that a methadone clinic is allowed under
the property's zoning, which permits medical offices.

The county's zoning administrator later changed his interpretation of the
ordinance, saying new information led him to conclude that a methadone
clinic is not the same as a medical office.

Even if a judge were to decide the clinic had a vested right, that might
not resolve the issue, county attorney Paul Mahoney said. That's because of
additional issues the Life Center raised earlier this week when it appealed
the county's denial of a business license for the clinic to both the board
of supervisors and the Board of Zoning Appeals.

"It is confusing because we have three different actions going on and they
overlap, but one is not completely congruent with the other," Mahoney said.

A Circuit Court judge, the supervisors and the Board of Zoning Appeals are
each being asked to resolve a different issue:

n The Board of Zoning Appeals will review a decision by Zoning
Administrator David Holladay, who determined last month that the Colonial
Avenue site was not zoned appropriately for a methadone clinic, which in
turn resulted in the denial of a business license.

After first telling the Life Center in June that a methadone clinic falls
into the category of a medical office, Holladay said last month that new
information about the clinic's operations led him to change that
interpretation.

n The board of supervisors will rule on whether a zoning condition enacted
in 1989 limiting use of the site to a family medical office still applies,
even though the word "family" was omitted from a 1997 zoning amendment.

The county maintains that the word "family" was inadvertently dropped from
the amendment but should still apply - thus making the site's zoning more
restrictive than that for a simple medical office.

n A Circuit Court judge will decide if the Life Center had a vested right
to operate the clinic, a determination that by law zoning administrators
cannot make.

Mahoney said that in order for the Life Center to open the clinic, it must
prevail on all three fronts. In other words, the zoning determinations
could be upheld by the county even if a judge were to find the center had
vested rights.

But that scenario is complicated by the Life Center's right to appeal a
decision by the board of supervisors or the Board of Zoning Appeals to
Circuit Court - raising the possibility that there could be two pending
legal cases involving the methadone clinic. If that happens, Mahoney said,
the two cases might be consolidated.

Yet another possibility is that a judge's ruling on the vested right issue
might be broad enough to render moot any actions by the supervisors or the
Board of Zoning Appeals.

"In a way, it's an attempt to kind of end-run some of the administrative
appeals we have pending," Mahoney said of the Life Center's filing in
Circuit Court.

Ed Natt, a Roanoke County attorney who represents the Life Center, could
not be reached for comment Thursday.

Meanwhile, residents opposed to the methadone clinic have hired their own
attorney but so far are staying out of the legal fray.

Michael Pace, a Roanoke lawyer who represents the group, said he plans to
speak against the clinic's proposed location at meetings of the board of
supervisors and Board of Zoning Appeals. Neither body has scheduled a time
to take up the issue, although they are expected to act before a judge does.

Residents fear the clinic, which will provide daily doses of methadone to
recovering addicts of opium-based drugs like OxyContin and heroin, will
bring crime, traffic congestion and decreased property values to their homes.

"No human being in his right mind thinks that this is the appropriate
facility for this location," Cave Spring Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix said
Tuesday at a board meeting. By then, the county was already expecting to be
sued over the issue. "See you in court," Minnix said.