JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
The Shirley Grace Pregnancy Center on Old Ocean City Road in Berlin will soon move to accommodate the new Hope4Recovery House. The town will consider a pair of ordinances related to group homes during meetings next month.
By Josh Davis, Associate Editor
(Oct. 18, 2018) A new ordinance defining what a group home can be – and limiting where it can go – was unanimously endorsed by the Berlin Planning Commission last week.
Planning Director Dave Engelhart said the ordinance was triggered by the new Hope4Recovery House opening in the location formerly occupied by the Shirley Grace Pregnancy Center on Old Ocean City Boulevard. The center will move to another building on the same property.
“When that came up, we didn’t have a group home definition and that’s one of the ordinances,” he said. “The second one is where they can be with a conditional use.”
Under the proposed ordinance, an applicant would have to go to the board of zoning appeals and request a conditional use.
“It could be a conditional use in the B-1 Town Center District, in that area east of Route 113 on Route 346, Old Ocean City Boulevard,” Engelhart said. “They’re limiting it geographically – where it can be – but also even there it’s a conditional use, that would need to go to the board of zoning appeals to be approved.”
According to the first ordinance, the definition of a group home would be “a state-licensed community residential facility housing and providing facilitative services to eight or fewer persons, not including staff, who are developmentally disabled or are recovering from drug or alcohol addiction.”
Both ordinances will come up for a first reading by the Town Council on Nov. 13, with a public hearing advertised and scheduled Nov. 26, Engelhart said.
Also during the planning commission meeting last Wednesday, the commission unanimously approved a site plan for the next building at Berlin Main Place on North Main Street, to be constructed by Gillis Gilkerson. Conditional approval was given contingent on the planning commission receiving a landscaping plan from developer Palmer Gillis.
Commission members reviewed but did not vote on a concept plan for two new buildings near the intersection of Route 818 and Route 50. Property owner Phillip Houck will offer commercial space inside the buildings, which are adjacent to the SonRise Church compound.
The Berlin Planning Commission is scheduled to meet again on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall.