Pubdate: Tue, 17 Oct 2006
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Doug Donovan, Sun Reporter

MEASURE WOULD MAKE OPENING DRUG CENTERS EASIER

The Baltimore City Council voted last night to give  preliminary 
approval to a zoning law change that would  make it easier to open 
drug treatment centers in the  city, even in residential neighborhoods.

The measure supported by Mayor Martin O'Malley's  administration 
seeks to broaden the definition of  health care clinics to include 
the centers and to  remove the requirement for council ordinances to open them.

The 15-member council's action last night advances the  ordinance to 
the Oct. 30 meeting, where it is expected  to be up for a final vote. 
If approved, as expected,  the ordinance would permit outpatient drug 
treatment  centers - such as methadone clinics - to open in areas 
zoned for various industrial and business uses,  Councilman Edward L. 
Reisinger said.

Opening them in residential areas would require only  the conditional 
permission of the Board of Municipal  and Zoning Appeals.

The zoning change was proposed by the administration,  in part, to 
head off a legal challenge to existing city  rules. A federal jury 
ruled in August that Baltimore  County officials discriminated 
against the patients of  a Pikesville methadone clinic when they 
enacted a zoning law prohibiting state-licensed medical  facilities 
from locating within 750 feet of homes. The  county's law also 
violated the Americans with  Disabilities Act.

"The purpose of this legislation is to comply with  federal law," 
Reisinger said.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke was the lone "no" vote.  She said the 
law would not be discriminatory if it  included a prohibition against 
locating all health care  clinics - from dentists' and doctors' 
offices to drug  treatment centers - from being conditional uses in 
residential areas.

"I think we should be fair to substance abuse centers  but not at the 
expense of residential areas," Clarke  said. "We still have the 
possibility of these coming  into neighborhoods."
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MAP posted-by: Elaine