Halfway house seeks rezoning

People can speak for or against the zone change request Tuesday.
By VIRGINIA ROSS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A local halfway house hopes to relocate and has asked city council to make a zoning change to accommodate the move.
Highland House, a nonprofit facility that helps recovering alcoholic and drug-dependent women at 312 Highland Ave., is asking the city to rezone the parcels between Stewart Place and an area south of Grant Street between Highland Avenue and East Street.
City council has scheduled a hearing for 6 p.m. Tuesday to receive public comments on the matter.
If council approves the request, the area will be changed from residential to commercial.
Highland House and the Greater New Castle Community Development Corp., which owns the property, requested the change, and the city planning commission is recommending it.
The planning commission also is recommending that a portion of Grant between Highland and East Street be vacated as part of the relocation.
Council must approve all planning commission recommendations.
Marilyn Plotts, Highland House executive director, said the facility has agreed to pay the development corporation $65,000 for the land.
The estimated cost to build an appropriate facility there is $1.4 million, she added.
"We just don't have room to build or add on where we're at now," she said, adding that the agency has been looking for a new location since 1995.
More employees
Highland House has 18 employees and likely will create several more positions with the expansion, she added. Plotts said the 18-bed facility intends to add six beds.
The facility has been in an old Victorian home on Highland Avenue since its inception in 1992.
In recent years, the agency has added an outpatient program that services 70 clients from Lawrence County and a free family education group that focuses on drug and alcohol awareness.
Funding is provided by the counties where the individual clients reside.