Jan 10, 2017 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg Borough Council voted Monday to adopt the borough’s new comprehensive plan and will now begin the task of updating the borough’s zoning ordinance.

A steering committee formed by representatives of the borough, Waynesburg University and the county has worked for about the last two years to revise the comprehensive plan, which had not been updated since the mid-1960s.

The plan provides the borough with a general “guideline” on where it hopes to be in the future, borough manager Mike Simms said.

“It’s like a long-range plan,” he said.

The scope of work for the plan revision had included reviewing issues involving housing, recreation, parking, transportation, economic development and downtown land use. It also called for an analysis of what could be done to attract new business to the downtown.

The committee considered recommendations for addressing various issues and prioritized those recommendations. Priorities included enhancing business development, addressing the need for parking and improving the “gateways” into the borough along main traffic routes.

Updating the borough’s comprehensive plan was also needed in order for the borough to apply for state grants for various projects, council President Larry Marshall said.

The final public hearing on the plan was held Monday prior to council’s regular monthly meeting. No residents were in attendance.

The steering committee will now address the borough’s out-of-date zoning ordinance, which also has not been revised for numerous years.

The inadequacy of the ordinance was illustrated last summer when a second Suboxone clinic received approval to open in downtown.

Local merchants opposed the clinic arguing clientele of the earlier established Suboxone clinic down the street had caused problems and frighten their customers.

The new clinic, however, was determined to comply with the zoning ordinance under which a doctor’s office is a permitted use in the downtown zoning district.

Council member noted then that the borough’s out-of-date zoning ordinance failed to address clinics or include even a definition of a clinic. Members felt such uses should be addressed more specifically and perhaps permitted in a zoning district outside the business district.

The committee will look at revising the ordinance to address uses that weren’t at issue when the ordinance was first written. This not only includes Suboxone clinics but also such things as medical marijuana dispensaries and cell phone towers, he said

“We will have to consider not only current uses but also future uses,” Simms said.

The steering committee has already discussed issues involving zoning at its meetings.

“We will now be going at it full force,” Simms said.

Members of the borough’s zoning hearing board also will be invited to participate in the discussions, he said.