A zoning hearing on whether a Chadds Ford home on Webb Road may be used as a residential rehab center concluded, and a decision is scheduled for Dec. 16. The session was filled with legal objections that were summarily overruled.
Chadds Ford Township is opposing a request by Drew and Nicole Barnabei, owners of the property at 681 Webb Road known as Stonebridge Mansion, to use the 25-room home as a residential lifestyle modification treatment facility.
The Barnabeis were previously denied use of the home as a for-hire wedding venue. They appealed to the Court of Common Pleas and to Commonwealth Court, but those courts upheld the zoning board’s ruling on the matter.
The township, through attorney Kathy Labrum, asserts that using the home as a rehab center is not permitted in the R-1 Residential District. She also said during the Nov. 18 session that, should the Barnabeis get approval from the state, they planned to vacate the property as their home and leave it as just the rehab facility.
Labrum explained in a telephone interview after the hearing that the township drew that conclusion from a floor plan the Barnabeis submitted as part of their application with the state Department of Health. She said the floor plan shows that patients, not the family, would use each of the eight bedrooms in the house.
“It shows the second and third floor being used for client bedrooms,” Labrum said. “[Nicole Barnabei’s] previous testimony was that the family resided on the third floor and would use the first and second floor for the wedding venue.”
Labrum further explained that there are five bedrooms on the second floor and three on the third. “All of them are being used for the healthcare facility.”
Labrum first cross-examined pharmacist Brian Walker, the vice president of Stonebridge Recovery, one of the business entities the Barnabeis created for the endeavor. Walker testified in October that the facility would be drug free, that no patient would be treated with drugs and that each patient would be drug and alcohol free before being accepted, that they would have already gone through a detox procedure.
He also said last month that there would be no more than 15 patients treated there and that a stay would last no longer than 90 days
She questioned him on the physical structure of the home, on whether it complied with various codes, and on the timing of when paperwork was filed with the state. Walker said he would have to defer to the Barnabeis on those issues.
Labrum then called two witnesses, Richard O’Brien and Nicole Barnabei.
O’Brien is vice president of Keystone Municipal Services of Swarthmore, Chadds Ford’s newly hired building inspector and zoning officer. He said that his firm was hired “last Wednesday,” meaning Nov. 11 of this year, but added that the company has 51 municipal clients in the region.
During his testimony, O’Brien said the home could not be used as a treatment facility because the house does not comply with the International Building Code for such a use.
According to O’Brien, the house would need different electrical wiring, illuminated exit signs, and that entrances, exits and bathrooms would need to be handicapped accessible. The house does not have that accessibility now.
The house would also need a sprinkler system, a hard-wired fire alarm, and a paved parking area for a van.
Attorney Jim Byrne, representing the Barnabeis, objected at least six times. He said his clients were asking about a zoning issue, not a building code issue. Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Bob Reardon overruled Byrne’s objections each time he raised them.
Under cross-examination from Byrne, O’Brien said he had not visited the property, nor had he read the entire zoning code, the township’s comprehensive plan or overlay ordinances or visited other group homes that already exist in Chadds Ford. Specifics of those homes were not discussed.
He said he based his decision regarding the physical plant on photographs he had been shown.
When pressed by Byrne, O’Brien finally said the reason the proposed use would violate the zoning code is because the use would be institutional, not single-family residential.
During her testimony, Barnabei said the application to be filed with the Department of Drugs and Alcohol requires a certificate of occupancy and zoning approval from the township, and then the state would inspect the house structure for compliance with various mandatory codes.
She said the application couldn’t even be filed without the certificate of occupancy and zoning approval.
The attorneys will file their facts and findings of law by Dec. 10 and the Zoning Hearing Board will announce its decision six days later.
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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