The Arc of Ohio has filed a formal complaint with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Huron stops work on group home

By MIKE FITZPATRICK | Thursday May 22 2008, 12:12pm

HURON

Developmentally disabled people won't feel at home any time soon in Huron.

The city issued a stop building order last week for a house that was to be a home for clients of Erie County MRDD.

The city said the home would violate zoning laws because it is not a single-family or two-family home, but instead a group home that would house three people with developmental disabilities.

Building officials learned the home would be a group home when neighbors complained, said Huron building official John Zimmerman.

"We had numerous complaints from the neighbors," he said. "I guess one called MRDD and found out it was going to be a group home."

Harold Lewis lives next door to where the house would stand. He would not be opposed to having MRDD clients live next to him, but still has questions.

"It all depends on who it is. All I've heard are rumors," he said. "I'd just like to know what kind of people would live there."

Gerald Meeker, who is rehabilitating a house across the street from where the modular home would stand, said he learned the house would be a group home from a hardware store clerk.

"I don't have a problem as long as it doesn't devalue (my property)," he said.

The foundation for the group home is completed. On Tuesday two red signs in front of the site indicated work had to cease or violators could face a fine or jail.

The modular home, built by EHOVE students, was slated to be moved from the school to its 335 Berlin Road foundation this week. All of that changed after the stop order was issued by the Huron Department of Housing and Building Inspection.

"I'm pretty surprised and frustrated," said Gerald Plassenthal, superintendent of Erie County MRDD.

He said the home would have offered a place where individuals with disabilities could live independently. Unlike most houses or apartments, the Berlin Road home was built to be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities. It has additional reinforcements for people with wheelchairs, extra-wide doorways and roll-in showers.

No residents have been lined up to live in the home.

The Arc of Erie County is acting as the landlord, Plassenthal said. The Arc is a not-for-profit organization that "works together with individuals and families affected by mental retardation and developmental disabilities by promoting an enhanced quality of life through social integration, affordable and safe housing, advocacy and education," according to its Web site.

Don Roesch, the housing director for The Arc, took out the building permit and indicated on the permit the home would be a single-family residential dwelling.

"It's checked residential and it's checked single family, so that led us to believe that it was going to be a single-family home," Zimmerman said.

Roesch did not return calls seeking comment.

Huron law director Lee McDermond would not say why the $100,000 home and property did not qualify for single- or two-family dwelling status.

The city zoning code refers to a one-family home as R-1 and a two-family home as R-2. The city believes the group home should be designated as R-3, multi-family.

"Our position is it requires an R-3 designation," McDermond said.

MRDD believes the home should qualify for single-family dwelling status.

"That's exactly what it is," Plassenthal said. "The question I've asked that I've never got an answer to is if you or I were building a rental property and it was a four bedroom home, what would it be zoned as? And the answer is it would be zoned as an R-1. How is this any different? This is the exact thing that has been done across the state where non-profit entities have built homes."

Zimmerman said the city is not discriminating against MRDD clients.

"We don't discriminate against anyone," he said. "We enforce the zoning code. It would be the same if there was an apartment building going in. It really has nothing to do with who is living in it."

McDermond said The Arc will have to put in a request for a zoning change if it wants the home to be moved to the Berlin Road location. That could take three to four months to wind through the zoning board before seeking approval from city council.