Zoning Board Denies Group Home for Addicts

The Pottstown Zoning Board has denied requested permissions needed to make 441 King St. into a group home for recovering addicts.

The Pottstown Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday night voted unanimously to deny two variances being sought by a company seeking to open a addiction recovery group home on the 400 block of King St.

The application was made by Jenise Mussleman, owner of JEM Home Solutions LLC.

The home would be run by Right Directions Living Recovery Home, which lists an address of 244 N. Charlotte St., already operates other recovery homes in the borough according to Matthew Murphy, founder and co-owner.

In fact Murphy said there are already 21 addiction recovery homes in Pottstown. One, approved last year by the zoning board, is just a block away from the headquarters, located in the 300 block of North Charlotte Street.

The zoning at 441 King St. permits a "group home" by special exception, a permission that is granted by the zoning hearing board if the application meets the conditions outlined in the zoning.

However, this application was seeking two additional variances, one regarding inadequate parking, which might have become moot, and another seeking permission to have 10 (or 12, depending on how you count them) people living there when the zoning would only allow six.

Mussleman said most residents of addiction recovery homes are not in a position to own a car, thus making the requirement for eight off-street parking spaces unnecessary.

"There is a lot of value in the service these homes provide," said Mussleman. "It's interesting we're focused on things like parking when we should be focusing on what's important."

Nevertheless, Mussleman presented the zoning board with a copy of an agreement to lease eight additional parking spaces from a Chestnut Street property owner across the alley from her King Street property.

Those spaces would have allowed the zoning code's parking requirements to be met, but the zoning board made not of the fact that the agreement was not dated and had length of term noted there.

The applicant's central argument for a variance for how many people can live in the home seemed to center around the fact that their business model would not be successful with only six residents.

But local real estate investor Robert Larkin testified that is not adequate reason grant a variance.

The Zoning Hearing Board takes testimony Wednesday night.

The zoning code limits the number of people in a building to limit density, he argued. "There is an incredible amount of push-back from the borough when people try to sub-divide their homes into apartments," said Larkin, who owns and rents a home at 238 N. Evans St.

"If they are granted a variance because their business model says they need more residents, as a property investor, that should apply to me as well and I should be able to cut up a home into more apartments to make a better return on my investment," Larkin said.

He said he believes the work the recovery home is doing is valuable. "I think you do amazing work," but added that he is opposed to allowing the density rules to waived for that reason.

Property owner Phillip Chen presented the zoning board with a petition with 20 signatures of neighbors opposed to the application.

He read from the petition noting that the block is home to many long-time residents and children and it would be "inconceivable" to allow a group home for recovering addicts to be established there.

Questioning Chen, Mussleman asked where he thought group homes should be located.

Chen replied, "it's not my decision. But we don't want one in our neighborhood. Period."

Mike Wilson, a general manager for Right Directions Living, said his group homes actually help drive off street-level drug dealing.

"The corner of Evans and Lincoln used to be a drug corner, and we have a house there," Wilson testified. "But now the dealers know to stay away. We've made it clear we don't want their riff-raff around."

He said the recovery home is "a sober house, not a group home. It's a bunch of guys living together, holding each other accountable, keeping each other clean."

Murphy is himself a recovering addict and said "living in a recovery home saved my life. I went from living nowhere to having a home with my kids and a job."

In addition to that job, Murphy also oversees the house managers, or "staff," at the recovery homes. That staff is comprised of recovering addicts who have done well. Their pay, said Murphy, is free rent and free food.


Ironically, the King Street property is the former home of housing activist Katy Jackson and her husband David.

David Jackson served on the Mosaic Community Land Trust board and Katy Jackson published an anti-blight blog called "The Golden Cockroach," which often assailed landlords for not maintaining properties or adequately screening tenants. That blog is no longer open to the public.

According to Montgomery County property records, the Jacksons sold the home, which they had renovated, to JEM Home Solutions of Harleysville on June 6 for $107,500.

After testimony was completed Wednesday night, the zoning hearing board went into executive session with their solicitor, R. Kurtz Holloway, to deliberate. They emerged about 20 minutes later and voted unanimously to deny the variances being sought for parking and additional residents.

As a result of not having those variances, the application for the special exception was then also subsequently denied unanimously.

Mussleman, Murphy and Wilson politely thanked them for their time.

Here are the Tweets from the second half of the hearing (I missed the first half covering the regional planning meeting in the next room which was the subject of yesterday's post):

Addiction Recovery Group Home Denied