Geauga County Commissioners Using Government to Supersede Local Zoning Laws.

CHESTERLAND – The Chester Township trustees met for their regularly scheduled meeting on August 24 with a special agenda item. During the meeting, the trustees invited leadership from the Geauga County board of developmental disabilities and the Emerald Rose mental health organization to address the public on a leasing agreement that is now seeing the mentally ill utilizing space originally intended for those with developmental disabilities and superseding local zoning laws that prohibit congregate housing.

During the meeting, Geauga County Board of Developmental Disabilities Superintendnet Don Rice explained to the public the history of how the county board came to partner with Emerald Rose. According to Rice, as the federal government moved to relocate adults with developmental disabilities out into the communities, large scale ICF facilities such as the Metzenbaum center began to empty out with imperatives not to refill beds. This led to a situation where the Metzenbaum grounds in Chesterland now sit with several large facilities that are completely empty. According to Rice, the board was left with few options, including either tearing down the facilities or renting them out.

According to Rice, after reaching out to many organizations across the Northeast Ohio area, the only organization that showed interest was Emerald Rose, a transitional housing facility for individuals with mental illness and substance abuse history. While many residents of the quiet township no doubt took umbrage with the situation unfolding in their own backyards, some had other issues pertaining to contract stipulations that are tied to the land.

A coalition of local residents made points during the meeting regarding deed restrictions that were tied to the land during its donation by the Metzenbaum family. According to the restrictions, the grounds and facility were only meant to be used for “the purposes of maintain, extending or expanding the existing facilities and programs of the Bessie Benner Metzenbaum Opportunity School for the mentally retarded presently being operated by The Board of Geauga County Commissioners.”

The land was given to the commissioners in 1985 and since that time has been under the ownership of the Geauga County commissioners. In 2019, in no small part due to the aforementioned federal initiative to move residents into the community, the county commissioners began a plan to reutilize the empty grounds to house the Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services to the Metzenbaum Center, which would seemingly be in direct violation of the deed restrictions from the land grant.

According to Rice, the deed restrictions are a moot point now that the Metzenbaum foundation has been dissolved. However, many residents pointed out that the deeds follow the land, not the donors. This push towards congregate care follows a second rush by multiple Cuyahoga County developers who attempted to rezone the township to approve the construction of a congregate care facility before it was struck down by massive community pushback.

According to Chester Township fiscal officer Patricia Jarrett, moving Emeral Rose into the facility allows the organization to sneak under the townships zoning laws.

“Government is exempt from our zoning laws,” Jarret said. “They are renting to a not for profit that would be subject to zoning laws if they were anywhere else.”

Those zoning laws specifically restrict the use and construction of congregate housing in the township and state that any housing development must be single family dwellings. The contracted leasing agreement may be a violation of the land deed for Metzenbaum property but is certainly an underhanded government action to slide congregate housing in the community ignoring local zoning restrictions.

During the meeting, Trustee Craig Richter argued that he believed the county commissioners approved the leasing agreement in early 2019. However, the board of DD Superintendent Don Rice disagreed. During the meeting, Geauga County commissioner Jim Dvorak who was present, sat silently next to Mr. Rice and only gave one comment when pressed to speak by TOR writers.

“I’ll do anything that I can do to help the mentally ill and it’s a growing problem with mental health and drug use, anything that can be dealt with the help,” Dvorak said.

According to trustee Craig Richter, the board brought the matter to the public because the machinations of the county commissioners is outside their control.

“We as a board don’t have any control over it it’s the commissioners,” Richter said.

According to program Director Joy Black, the facility currently houses several residents of dual diagnosis who fall under the category of mental health and substance usage or past substance usage. Many are currently taking psychotropic medications and are able to come and go from the facility as they please. According to Black, the facility does not drug screen any residents and chooses to “eyeball” the situation for monitoring.

“Have you ever seen someone who is high on marijuana or meth,” Black said, “You can tell.”

According to Rice, the decision at this point to continue additional contracting and leasing agreements falls under the jurisdiction of the County Commissioners, who have no desire to change course. Should a regime change occur within the commissioners, the new office would have the authority to end the agreement. According to Rice, such a decision is unlikely.

“It might hurt them more than help them,” Rice said. “What we proposed to the commissioners was to let the mental health board just take over that property, whether they lease or don’t lease it’s the mental health board’s property,” Rice said. “They simply take over the use of those two buildings. I don’t one run of them anymore.” According to Rice, the commissioners are amicable to the suggestion.

According to Rice, the property management has become a bit of a shell game, where the Commissioners own the property but don’t pay for or run it. Instead that responsibility was given to the County board of Developmental Disabilities. The Commissioners have taken no responsibility for the leasing of the property, but are seemingly ok with it, while the Board of DD is arguing any misuse of the land granted to them is moot due to it still being under ownership of the County as ‘intended.’

At this time, it appears the county commissioners are on course to move mental health congregate housing into the Chester community whether the residents want it or not and independent of local zoning laws.