Pubdate: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 Source: Roanoke Times (VA) Copyright: 2003 Roanoke Times Contact: http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/368 Author: Todd Jackson ROANOKE COUNCIL DEFERS TO LEGISLATORS ON DRUG-CLINIC ISSUE The council will ask the General Assembly to require state officials to notify a locality when a company applies for a clinic license. Frustrated Roanoke officials will pressure state legislators to revise Virginia's methadone clinic licensing laws. The Roanoke City Council on Monday took two actions to make it potentially harder for such clinics to open in the future, but neither will stop a proposed methadone facility on Hershberger Road Northwest, said Bill Hackworth, Roanoke's city attorney. The council will ask the General Assembly to require state officials to notify a locality when a company applies for a clinic license in that particular jurisdiction. They also set a process in motion to change Roanoke's zoning ordinance. "We believe this is a good start," City Manager Darlene Burcham said, adding that the city is doing all it can to help Northwest residents who were upset by the proposal. Council's afternoon decisions preceded its night meeting in which close to 100 Northwest residents packed the council chamber to oppose the clinic. Lynn Johnson, who lives near the proposed clinic site, told the council, "As the watchdogs of this city, I urge you to find legislation to keep it out." The crowd offered city leaders ideas on other locations where such a facility could be located including a former blood bank building on Campbell Avenue in Roanoke and the Veterans Administration hospital complex in Salem. Burcham, council members and other city hall leaders have said they were caught completely off-guard recently when Nashville, Tenn.-based National Specialty Clinics obtained a business license to open a methadone-related drug treatment clinic in a vacant medical building on Hershberger Road. The city site, as well as another proposed clinic in Roanoke County, have touched off public opposition because the locations are near schools and neighborhoods. While National Specialty Clinics has a city business license, it has not yet obtained a state license, she said. The company must also get a city certificate of occupancy for the building it plans to use. Burcham said Monday that she's learned that the Nashville company first notified the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services of its general intentions more than a year ago, but the state wasn't required to inform Roanoke officials. Burcham maintains that she and members of her staff knew nothing about the proposed clinic until last month when the company had already received the business permit from the city's office of the commissioner of the revenue . It was at that point that the city realized it was dealing with a methadone clinic request and also realized that the Hershberger Road site is in a commercial zoning classification, known as C-2, that allows such a use. The city will request that state law be changed so no state clinic license can be issued until the governing body of an affected locality is notified and has at least 30 days to submit comments. In addition to the state law revision, the city council voted to pursue a Roanoke zoning ordinance amendment that would make it harder for outpatient mental health and substance abuse clinics to locate in the C-2 classification. The city already has more stringent regulations in several other commercial classifications. Brenda Hale, president of the Roanoke NAACP branch, told the council that the Northwest community has a number of serious concerns about the methadone clinic and urged the council to try to find other ways to regulate the facility, such as its hours of operation. In other items Monday, the council: * Learned that Roanoke has been chosen as the top digital city in its population category for the third - straight year by the Center for Digital Government. No other city in the country has earned that distinction three years running, Burcham said. * Was told by Downtown Roanoke Inc. Director David Diaz that the H&C Coffee sign downtown will likely be moved to the top of the Shenandoah Hotel building at the corner of Williamson Road and Campbell Avenue. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens