Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992 TAG: 9201030261
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SUIT TARGETS HEGIRA HOUSE
A dispute over relocation of a Roanoke drug-treatment home - which has been bounced between the city Board of Zoning Appeals and Circuit Court for more than half a year -is headed back to court.A group of Andrews Road homeowners opposed to plans to move Hegira House into their neighborhood filed suit this week in Roanoke Circuit Court.
The suit is the latest in a complicated series of meetings and court hearings that began in the spring, when Hegira House announced plans to move to 1919 Andrews Road N.W.
The issue already has been to court once, after the Board of Zoning appeals declared the issue dead when it deadlocked on a 2-2 vote, with one member absent.
Hegira House filed suit, and Judge Roy Willett sent the case back to the board to clear up any procedural confusion.
But when the board took up the issue in December - for at least the fourth time - it became even more confusing. A motion to grant Hegira House a special exception to the zoning ordinance first failed by a 3-2 vote, but one dissenting member said he was mistaken and meant to vote in favor of it.
Over opponents' objections, the board then held a second vote, and the motion passed by a 3-2 margin.
In the lawsuit, Andrews Road residents say the board's second vote on an issue that had already failed violated Robert's Rules of Order and should be declared illegal.
Residents are concerned that if Hegira House moves from Old Southwest to Andrews Road, it would devalue their homes and increase crime in the area.
Some opponents have suggested that the proposed move has racial overtones because the new site is in a black neighborhood.
While the lawsuit deals mostly with procedural issues, it also mentions that the Andrews Road area is "predominantly black because of prior segregated housing patterns in the city of Roanoke."
To allow Hegira House to relocate would "deny these minority citizens of Roanoke equal protection" under city, state and federal law, the suit states.