DATE: Tuesday, July 22, 1997                TAG: 9707220084

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, staff writer 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   67 lines

NORFOLK PLANS TO CAULK CRACKS IN ONE ZONING ORDINANCE THE COUNCIL WANTS TO MAKE SURE THAT NEIGHBORHOOD HAVE TO SAY ON PROJECTS.

Nearly everybody, from residents in Riverpoint to City Council members, was surprised last February after learning that a private firm with a state contract planned to open a residential center for juvenile offenders.

When two of the youths escaped shortly after the facility opened in March, chagrined city officials vowed they wouldn't be caught off-guard again.

Today, they might make good on the promise.

The city council is holding a 7:30 p.m. public hearing at City Hall on a proposal that would require the operators of such juvenile facilities to go through a formal review process - including an airing before the council - and obtain a permit from the city before opening.

City Planning officials said that the juvenile facility slipped through the regulatory cracks of a zoning ordinance intended to accommodate institutional uses. But some of the permitted uses need a closer look, officials say.

``We think this is about the health and stability of our neighborhoods,'' said Ernest Freeman, director of the city's Department of Planning and Codes Administration. ``We need to make absolutely certain these programs are developed in a compatible way with the neighborhoods they're in.''

Freeman said a trend toward state agencies contracting such services with private operators increased the need for tighter city oversight.

``This will ensure that neighborhood input is a requirement,'' Freeman said.

Residents frustrated by their inability to block the opening of the juvenile center in a neighborhood near DePaul Medical Center off Granby Street are applauding the city's effort. One of the teen-agers who escaped from the facility - since closed by the operator, First Corrections Corp. - was later charged with breaking into a neighborhood home while on the lam.

All of the youths in the center had been convicted of nonviolent offenses and were committed to the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

``There are a lot of young families with children in this neighborhood, and I think it was a deterrent for people moving in,'' said Vickie Beale of Talbot Park. ``I would be in favor of eliminating that particular use, if possible.''

David E. Benson, a Riverpoint resident, said the facility was incompatible with the neighborhood, with nearby day-care centers, schools and a church.

``We do need these types of facilities in the state, but this was just the wrong place at the wrong time,'' Benson said.

Currently, institutional districts are scattered citywide, including schools, churches and hospitals. The juvenile facility, located in an area zoned for institutional uses in a building formerly used as a psychiatric center for adult and youth patients, was considered a permitted use by planning staffers, Freeman said. It did not go before the city Planning Commission or the Council for review.

The operator only had to obtain a business license to open, Freeman said.

Under the proposal before council tonight, the zoning ordinance would be changed to allow juvenile detention centers only by a special exception granted by council.

A proposed definition for such centers describes them as facilities providing room and board 24 hours a day for juveniles under the supervision of the court, state or local agency and require specialized attention and care.

The review would enable the council to establish specific conditions for their operation and to deny a permit if objections arise.

The council is expected to vote on the provision tonight.

While juvenile centers attracted the city's immediate attention, the city plans to more broadly address the issue of how institutional uses affect neighborhoods, officials said.

``We've got a number of uses very similar in terms of impact that we need to get a more precise handle on,'' Freeman said.

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