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PARKERSBURG -- No new residential drug treatment facilities would be permitted in the city for nearly a year under an ordinance before Parkersburg City Council on Tuesday.
Scheduled for first reading at the 7:30 p.m. regular meeting, the ordinance imposes a moratorium on the establishment of group residential facilities or group residential homes through June 30.
"We just need to put a finger in the dike, so to speak," Mayor Tom Joyce said.
Joyce said he's not against rehab facilities, but the ordinance says approximately 19 percent of licensed substance abuse treatment beds in West Virginia are within the city limits of Parkersburg. However, the city accounts for less than 2 percent of the state's population.
According to statistics provided by the city and state earlier this year, there are 283 state-licensed treatment beds in Wood County, compared to just 30 five years ago. All but 80 of them are within the city limits, with St. Joseph Recovery Center opening with 86 beds in 2019 and 75 at Clean & Clear Advantage in downtown Parkersburg last year.
Those numbers do not include facilities like Recovery Point Parkersburg, a peer-led, non-medical program that opened with 80 beds in 2017. Such facilities, and group homes for people dealing with addiction, would be included in the moratorium, Joyce said.
Legislation passed in 2017 exempted drug and alcohol treatment facilities from West Virginia's certificate of need process, under which the state Health Care Authority reviews proposals to add or expand health care facilities to determine if they are needed. Treatment programs are exempt from local and state zoning regulations because addiction is classified as a disability.
"Anyone can come into the City of Parkersburg and open a drug rehab anywhere in the city," Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl said. "We're going to be proactive in not allowing any more of them until this is addressed by the state Legislature."
Among the steps Joyce would like to see the Legislature take is removing the certificate of need exemption.
Asked about the exemption from zoning regulations, Joyce said he did not know if the moratorium would sustain a legal challenge. But he said the city has to try to do something to address the impact the facilities have on the community.
The ordinance says the city has seen an increase in its homeless population and attributes that at least in part to people leaving or being evicted from residential treatment programs but remaining in the area without any family or other support structure because they aren't from here. It notes the city has assisted multiple homeless individuals in relocating to other parts of the country.
The rise in the homeless population has contributed to a 35 percent rise in shoplifting and trespassing over the last five years and increases in overdose calls and vacant house fires, the ordinance says.
Tuesday's agenda will also include:
* The final reading of an ordinance allowing people to discharge fireworks within the city limits on July 4-5.
* A resolution allowing the temporary vending of beer and/or wine for at Bicentennial Park for an Oct. 9 event called "Ears & Beers," sponsored by Audiology Services of West Virginia.
* Joyce's appointment of James "Butch" Joseph to the Juliana Architectural Review Board.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.
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Tuesday's Parkersburg City Council meetings:
* 7:30 p.m. -- regular council meeting, council chambers, second floor of the Municipal Building; some distancing is requested.
* Immediately following -- Urban Renewal Authority, council chambers.