CITIZENS AGAINST 30 BED DRUG CLINIC 940 Hazle Township Pa

Petition against the group JS + DRE LLC from getting permission to establish the proposed clinic below. 

ERIC CONOVER/Staff PhotographerThe former Zola’s Lamp Post tavern and catering hall along Route 940 in Ebervale may become a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, if a local group can obtain zoning variances from Hazle Township. The group intends to build a 60-foot by 100-foot addition to the back of the building for sleeping quarters for the clinic, which will have a cafeteria in the front. The hearing into the variances needed will be held Monday, March 2 at 6 p.m. at the Hazle Township Commons Building Group seeks Hazle Twp. space for rehab center BY JIM DINO Published: February 20, 2015 A local group wants to establish a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in the former Zola’s Lamp Post tavern and catering hall along Route 940 in Ebervale. But the group, JS+DRE LLC, first has to get permission from the township’s zoning hearing board to establish the clinic there. Attorney Robert Gillespie Jr., representing JS+DRE, said the group consists of local people — Michael Cabell, Jack Darrow, Larry Sidari and his brother, Dr. Jude Sidari. In December 2013, Cabell, Darrow and Dr. Jude Sidari were involved with an effort to bring a similar rehab facility to a building at 1303 St. Johns Road in Butler Township. However, residents there circulated petitions opposing the idea and turned out at meetings in Butler Township — 400 attended one zoning hearing — and the group eventually dropped its plans for the site. At the time, Gillespie said that even though his clients gave up on the Butler Township location, they were committed to providing drug and alcohol treatment services in the community, and were open to ideas on where a center could be located. More than a year later, they believe they found the right place, but again they face zoning obstacles. The former Zola’s bar and restaurant has been closed for more than two years, so the commercial zoning for the business has expired, according to Fran Calarco, Hazle Township’s zoning officer. The building and the land has reverted back to an R-1 single-family residential zoning district, so the group must appeal to the township zoning hearing board for changes. “R-1 is the most restrictive of zoning districts in our zoning ordinance,” Calarco said. “They will have to get a variance just to have the facility there, plus rear and side-yard variances.” A rear-yard variance is needed because the group wants to build a 60-by-100-foot addition to the back of the building for sleeping quarters for the clinic, which will have a cafeteria in the front. The entire building will be 128 feet by 60 feet. Calarco said the township’s zoning ordinance also calls for a 500-foot side-yard variance. “It can’t be within 500 feet of a home,” Calarco noted. The hearing into the variances will be held March 2 at 6 p.m. at the Hazle Township Commons Building. This week, Gillespie described a facility similar to the one proposed more than a year ago in Butler Township. The facility will be established for people who volunteer to go for treatment, he said. “This will be a volunteer-only clinic,” he said. “Nobody at this facility would be ordered by the court. This would be a non-opiate, drug and alcohol treatment center. It will be for low-risk patients.” Gillespie said the facility will also have space for therapy and recreational activities. “There will be a doctor on duty 24 hours a day,” Gillespie said. “This will be a self-contained facility.” Gillespie said the facility is being proposed by local people who are concerned because there is no facility like this in the area now. “The people who will be at this facility are people who want to right their lives,” Gillespie said. “These people will be the sons and daughters of local residents trying to get off addictions.”