MEADVILLE —
Following a public hearing attended by approximately two dozen citizens Wednesday evening, Meadville City Council members unanimously approved the first and second readings of an amendment that would expand the city’s zoning code to include detention homes/halfway houses and sexually oriented businesses or establishments, among other changes.
The hearing preceded council’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting.
Although concerns were expressed about the suitability of either type facility, both Zoning Administrator Gary Johnson and Gary Alizzeo, the city’s attorney, explained that the amendment, which limits the detention/halfway facilities to the city’s T-1 transitional zones, and sexually oriented facilities to the city’s Economic Development Corridor, restricts the location of both types of facilities much more than the city’s current code.
“Under state law, every municipality has to provide for every possible land use,” Johnson explained.
“Right now this use could happen anywhere in the city,” Alizzeo agreed. “This is not an option — if it’s a legal use, the city must provide for it.”
Johnson’s explanation that sexually oriented businesses must be at least 500 feet from a number of facilities — including other sexually oriented businesses, churches and schools — quieted fears expressed by a number of members of the audience that such a business could be opened at the edge of the Economic Development Corridor that’s directly across Linden Street from Second District Elementary School.
The amended ordinance will not go into effect until August following its third and final reading.
Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.
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