BOARDING HOMES' EXPANSION REJECTED

Allentown Zoners Say Approval Would Open Pandora's Box

The Allentown Zoning Hearing Board unanimously rejected an application
Monday night to increase the number of people living in two single- family
houses being used as boarding homes for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.

That means the Ray's Place boarding homes at 227 N. 14th St. and 33 N.
Jefferson St. are limited to housing no more than four unrelated people at
a time, just like any other single-family dwelling in the city.

In another case involving a single-family house, the board also unanimously
rejected a variance request to convert a row home at 713 Tilghman St. to a
three-unit apartment.

Raymond Ehritz, owner of the two boarding homes, had sought to bring seven
people into the N. 14th Street property and eight into the N. Jefferson
Street home.

He argued in July that his for-profit homes should be granted special use
applications under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Recovering
alcoholics are considered disabled under the act.

But in rendering his opinion, board Chairman F. Paul Laubner said that
granting the application threatens to open a "Pandora's box" in Allentown
in which everyone who wants to operate a boarding house for recovering
alcoholics and drug addicts would have standing to do so.

"Any residential house in the city, regardless of where it is located,
would be fair game," Laubner said.

The board was also concerned about the effect of expanding the use at N.
14th Street where residents had testified last month that passersby,
including a teenage girl, were subjected to catcalls and harassment by
residents.

"I believe that if we granted this application the effect on this
neighborhood would be devastating," Laubner said.

Laubner drew a similar conclusion after hearing 90 minutes of testimony on
the application to convert the Tilghman Street home to a three-unit
apartment. Building owner Frank Ubiera claimed that the building had been a
three-unit apartment when he bought it in 1998.

But neighbors who had lived next door and across the alley from the house
for 20 years testified that one family had lived there for decades.

Initially, Ubiera had sought to convert the three-story, 1,741-square- foot
building into five efficiency apartments but asked the board's permission
to scale back his request.

Laubner, in expressing the opinion of the board, said Ubiera had failed to
meet either of the criteria necessary to grant a variance: a legal hardship
or proof that the conversion would not have a detrimental effect on the
neighborhood.

The application was opposed by the city administration, represented by
assistant solicitor Francis P. Burianek, who made issue of Ubiera's failure
to obtain building permits before he began making extensive repairs to the
building.

"There was an illegal and surreptitious conversion of the property," said
Michael M. Rosenfeld, executive director of the Allentown Redevelopment
Authority, which also opposed the application.

Rosenfeld testified that the city and the authority have, since 1988, been
working together to try to get divided single-family homes deconverted.

The city has even offered $10,000 grants to property owners who do so, he said.

"This property could be the poster child of what we're fighting against,"
Rosenfeld said.