Two years ago, the Chadds Ford Township Zoning Hearing Board denied a request by Drew and Nicole Barnabei to use their Webb Road home — Stonebridge Mansion — as a party venue.
Last year the Barnabeis wanted the township to allow them to use the home as a drug and alcohol rehab center. That request was turned down.
The Barnabeis appealed to federal court, according to their attorney Jim Byrne, but were told they had to take the case before the zoning board, something they hadn’t yet done for this use.
On Oct. 21, the Barnabeis were back before the Zoning Hearing Board with a modified request to use their 681 Webb Road home as a Residential Lifestyle Modification Treatment Center.
According to Byrne, such a facility is a by-right use. If the hearing board should decide otherwise, Byrne asked the board for a “reasonable accommodation.”
He said the 25-room home would house up to 15 people who were recovering from substance abuse.
Byrne also said denying the use would be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Act.
Only one witness was called during the Oct. 21 session, pharmacist Brian Walker, who is the vice president of Stonebridge Recovery, one of the business entities the Barnabeis created for the endeavor.
Walker, who said he has worked with substance abuse patients and has had extra training for the work, said the home is “ideally suited” for the use suggested.
The home is on seven acres of land where the residents, who would live as a “single family unit,” can walk the quiet grounds in a contemplative manner. They would go through a variety of holistic therapeutic modalities including meditation, chi kung (a Chinese breathing exercise system) and group therapy. With the exception of things such as heart medications, Stonebridge would be drug-free.
Residents would live as a family and have responsibility for keeping their areas clean in preparation for their returning to the outside world.
Walker also said Stonebridge would not be a detox facility. Those going to Stonebridge would have gone through detox and would arrive already clean and sober.
During testimony, Walker also read from newspaper articles from the Delaware County Daily Times in which Upper Darby Police Chief Michael Chitwood and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan have said a heroin epidemic exists in Chester and Delaware counties. Other articles mentioned drug arrests in Chadds Ford Township.
The point Byrne was bringing up is that substance abuse, whether it’s alcohol or drugs — prescription or illegal — is rampant.
Walker said residential rehab facilities are a perfect way to help someone transition from being an addict to returning to society. One exhibit in support of the testimony was a February 2015 issue of Psychology Today in which 16 residential facilities, as the one proposed by the Barnabeis, are mentioned as being top-of-the-line facilities and help rid patients of the stigma of having been addicts.
The township is opposing the application. Kathy Labrum, a partner with township solicitor Hugh Donaghue, did not present her arguments, but will do so when the hearing resumes on Nov. 18.
However, Labrum did say that what the Barnabeis had applied for last year was more akin to a hospital facility, not a family unit. She also said she would accept Walker as an expert pharmacist, but not as an expert in treating drug and alcohol abuse.
Labrum will cross-examine Walker and said she wants to question Nicole Barnabei.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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