Politics & Government

In Attempt to Thwart Planned Gambling Clinic, Residents Appeal to Zoning Board

Appeal could potentially be rendered moot if the Planning Board decides to reconsider the matter at its next meeting.

Borough residents have filed an appeal with the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment in an attempt prevent a gambling addiction clinic from leasing space at what is now the Parrot Mill Inn.

The area in which the inn sits is zoned for B-3 uses, which permits many different kinds of use. Under current zoning rules, the clinic—which will be run by Tricare Treatment Services owner Michael Osborne—would be permitted in the area, and the appeal is requesting that the Board of Adjustment reconsider that permitted use.

But according to Planning Board attorney Anne Marie Rizzuto, the appeal could potentially be rendered moot at the Planning Board's next meeting March 3.

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The Planning Board has already approved a site plan waiver that allows the some of the current bedrooms inside the inn to be changed into offices. It did so at its Feb. 3 meeting.

Rizzuto said Osborne wanted to combine the uses of the inn to include professional offices and treatment, in addition to the overnight accommodations the inn would provide. He was required to go to the board to request a site plan waiver to change that permitted use. If Tricare had leased the building across the street to use as the professional offices and leased the inn to use as residences, he wouldn't have had to come before the Planning Board at all.

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But Rizzuto said today that the Planning Board directed her to research whether it could reconsider its decision to approve the site plan waiver. She said it could potentially do so.

"My initial research is that the Planning Board can reopen and reconsider [the matter]," Rizzuto said.

Rizzuto has not made a final decision on the matter, but she will do so at the board's March 3 meeting. If the board is able to look at the matter again, it will need to decide, once again, whether the inn can or cannot be used as a gambling addiction clinic.

If the Planning Board decides that it is not a permitted use, Osborne would be required to file a full and complete application for a use variance, which is a more involved process than simply requesting a site plan waiver. That Planning Board decision would also override the Board of Adjustment appeal residents have submitted.

Tallmadge Avenue residents—who live adjacent to the inn—came to a Planning Board meeting in large numbers last week to protest the clinic's potential presence near their homes.


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