ZONING CHANGE FOR METHADONE CLINIC ON HOLD

URBANA -- A methadone treatment facility can't be built near downtown
Urbana -- or anywhere within the city limits -- because the city's zoning
ordinance doesn't allow it. That's the opinion of Libby Tyler, community
development director and zoning administrator, who in the wake of her
finding drafted an amendment to the zoning ordinance that would allow a
methadone treatment facility.

That amendment is on hold for now.

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has 45 days to appeal Tyler's
assertion to the city's zoning board of appeals. Any decision by the zoning
board of appeals could be appealed to circuit court.

On Thursday, Urbana Plan Commission members tabled the text amendment to
wait until the 45-day appeal period expires.

The public health district has leased office space at 211 N. Broadway Ave.,
U, where the district intends to move its division of HIV, sexually
transmitted diseases and tuberculosis prevention and management.

In reviewing the city's zoning ordinance, Tyler noted the definitions of
hospital and clinic do not fit the methadone treatment center, and
therefore, under the current ordinance, the facility cannot be built in Urbana.

"My feeling is that we've set up a fair and open process to deal with this.
So I stand by my interpretation," Tyler said in a recent interview. "I
think it's a very fair text amendment."

She listed a number of examples when the zoning ordinance was updated for
new types of businesses or facilities: the hospital guesthouse, mail-order
businesses, pet care and grooming services, towing companies and
check-cashing services.

"We know it's labor intensive ... but we do try to keep an accurate and
up-to-date ordinance," she said.

The text amendment calls for the following definition to be added:
"Methadone treatment facility means any facility, other than a hospital,
where the addictive narcotic drug methadone is administered or dispensed to
patients."

The amendment, if approved, would allow the methadone treatment center in a
Business 3, Business 4 or Medical Institutional Campus zone in the city by
a special-use permit. Special-use permits require city council approval.
The city council also could modify the amendment and allow such a facility
by right, and then not require council approval.

Norman Baxley, an Urbana resident, questioned Tyler as to why a methadone
treatment center is not permitted under the current zoning ordinance.

"The facility is a clinic," he said "It looks like a clinic and it's going
to run like a clinic."

He also cautioned the city about attempting to regulate health care by
determining what types of services can be provided and what can't.

Methadone treatment clinics are located in Decatur, Peoria, Springfield and
Kankakee. The Peoria and Kankakee offices are full, and have stopped taking
new patients, city staffers said.