“None of us, nobody, objects to recovery homes,” she said. The news that new recovery homes would be halted came as a relief to Fleming. They saw it as kicking the can down the road via the hastily added resolution to “declare invalid portions of the township zoning.” Some of the residents, including Fleming and Kerner, walked out of the meeting disappointed after the resolution passed. She said she doesn’t know what would happen if a new recovery home applicant fought the township on its stay. Longhitano said the township tried to take into consideration this “spiderweb” of cases when passing its resolution. However, he said, case law in Pennsylvania is confusing because of the many small municipalities that each make their own zoning decisions. Ordinances like the one in Falls have tended to crumble when held up to scrutiny in court, he said. “Congress specifically said if you have a history of addiction … you are considered or can be considered a person with a disability” and therefore be covered by the Fair Housing Act, said disability rights attorney Michael Allen. Neighboring Falls Township, which has far fewer recovery homes, passed an ordinance last month that restricts where the homes could be located.īut municipal officials in Lower Bucks have to balance the residents’ concerns against what is legal. “According to, it will give us an 180-day stay to rectify our zoning,” said Councilwoman Amber Longhitano.įor the next six months, said solicitor Randall Flager, “the township has the option not to entertain” new recovery homes under the “pending-ordinance doctrine.” New recovery house applicants may be denied use and occupancy permits or other paperwork needed to take boarders while the municipality tinkers with its zoning code. While it was not announced at the meeting, the resolution also provided the township with a way to temporarily bar new recovery homes. The township council passed a resolution Thursday night that the solicitor called the “first step” toward a zoning ordinance that would rein in the area’s multiplying recovery homes. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor
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