Aberdeen's city planning commission Wednesday denied a request from the operator of methadone clinic to open in a district zoned for manufacturing.
The commission's action, which could still be overturned by the city council, comes at a time when local officials in Harford County are becoming increasingly concerned about the rising number of drug abusers in the county and drug-related crime.
A group called Changing Hands for Humanity asked to open Changing Hands Counseling Services at 1232 S. Philadelphia Blvd., near Auction Services and Word of Faith Outreach.
Phyllis Grover, the city's director of planning and community development, said at the planning commission's monthly meeting that Aberdeen started allowing medical services in the M1 (manufacturing) district in 1992, but revoked the practice in 2006.
A similar methadone clinic, MATT Program Inc., was operating at the same location on Route 40 but closed before 2006 and is now operating in Riverside, a few miles south of the city.
"If you look at the purposes of the M1, it is light manufacturing, warehousing, fabricating, wholesaling," Grover said. "Commercial uses are permitted primarily for use of the employees in the district."
Robert Kahoe, a Bel Air lawyer, said Changing Hands would be an outpatient treatment service providing methadone for heroin addicts, among other services.
"I think this would be classified by any definition as a medical use," he said. "We think this particular location is a very appropriate location."
Lawanna Edwards Perkins, who would be the manager of the counseling center, said it would have at least nine staff members, including one doctor, two nurses and two clinical coordinators, who would always be in the building.
She said she expected about 150 people to use the clinic daily, and that Pastor Melvin Taylor, of adjacent Word of Faith Outreach, had agreed to bus in the clients for church services as well as clinic use on Sundays.
She said she ultimately hoped to open a "wellness center to clean up Harford County, mentally, emotionally, spiritually" at that location.
Grover said Ashley, an outpatient program for substance abuse treatment, already has facility in downtown Aberdeen.
Planning commissioner members and Grover were confused by the clinic's exact planned location and whether it would be not-for-profit or for-profit.
Commission Chairman Joe Swisher also asked Perkins to define methadone and, when she said it would be a holistic program, asked her to define holistic.
Aberdeen Police Lt. Kirk Bane said, however, that he does not think Aberdeen has much of a heroin problem.
"It seems like a lot of what they're going to be treating are people that have heroin addiction," Bane said about the clinic. "We do not have a very big heroin problem here. Most of the drugs we come across are crack [cocaine] and obviously a lot of prescription addiction, marijuana. But I know just from talking to [Harford County Sheriff's Office] deputies, [Maryland] State Police… that Fallston, Jarrettsville, close to the county line, they have a bigger heroin issue than we do."
Perkins said she expected most clients to come from Harford County, but added some could come from Baltimore or fromCecil County.
County Councilwoman Sandra Landbeck, who represents the council on the planning commission, said the issue is not whether the clinic belongs in Aberdeen but whether it belongs in M1.
"That's what you should be voting on, not whether they should come," she told the other planning commission members.
Commission member Mark Schlottman was the only one to support the zoning exception.
"At first blush, I don't see any problem with it, to tell you the truth, to change the zoning," Schlottman said. "If you remember, there was a big hue and cry when that facility moved to Riverside. I don't think there's been any problems with that facility in Belcamp."
The proliferation of methadone and other drug treatment facilities in Harford County, most privately owned but run as not-for-profit enterprises, has been coming in for more and more scrutiny by local officials in recent years.
Similar concerns have been expressed by some local officials about halfway houses and other services that cater to people with substance abuse problems or those who have recently been released from the criminal justice system. Some officials in the town of Bel Air, where many drug clinics and halfway houses have clustered, have been very outspoken about this issue.
In June, the federal government designated Harford as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, making the county eligible for more federal law enforcement intervention, something county police leaders say was long overdue.
In the 2010 fiscal year, according to state figures, Harford's local Office of Drug Control Policy assisted more than 23,500 clients with drug issues, the largest number of any such local program in the state.
Local law enforcement officials say prescription drug abuse in particular has reached epidemic proportions in the county.