Frankford continues fight
against treatment center

By Jon Campisi
Times Staff Writer

While they lost round one of the fight, the Frankford Civic Association vowed to keep pressing ahead in its quest to deny the Wedge Medical Center sanctuary in the neighborhood.
During an association meeting on May 1, president Frances Clay told those in attendance that representatives of the civic group had been unable the previous day to persuade the city Zoning Board of Adjustment to block Wedge from opening a drug- and alcohol-treatment center at 4243-47 Frankford Ave.
The plan has been strongly opposed by the civic group, which thinks there already are too many of those facilities in the neighborhood.
Not counting Wedge, 16 similar facilities operate throughout Frankford, Clay said.
Civic association members knew they were in for a fight when opposing the center, and they previously acknowledged that battling the plan at the zoning level most likely would be an exercise in futility, since these types of rehab centers are a permitted use under current zoning guidelines and don’t require variances.
Although zoning officials ruled in favor of Wedge, the civic group is not ready to back down just yet.
"It wasn’t a waste of time that we went down there," civic association vice president Brian Wisniewski said.
The civic group plans to fight the center by other means. One idea brought up last week was to see about possibly having a zoning overlay in Frankford, which would help to prevent similar businesses from operating in proximity to one another. The goal, members said, is to keep the number of like facilities to a minimum.
At one point during the meeting, the group discussed lumping other types of unwanted businesses into the mix, since they plan to draft a letter to city officials asking about instituting the overlay — it will take an act of City Council for the overlay to go through — but Tony Stephens, an aide to state Sen. Christine Tartaglione, urged members to stick to one issue at a time.
"I understand the seriousness of everything," Stephens said. "We can get this done one at a time."
Discussion of rehab centers sparked talk of other undesirable enterprises, such as drinking establishments. The Rev. John Large, parish priest at Mater Dolorosa, located at 1676 Ruan St., spoke about the seemingly never-ending number of bars opening throughout the neighborhood.
"How many more bars do we have in 19124 than everyone else?" Large asked rhetorically, referring to Frankford’s ZIP code. "This isn’t rehabs. These are bars, and the people are not just coming from Frankford."
If Frankford wants to bill its business district as a place worth frequenting, Large said, the number of liquor establishments could actually hurt its chances for revitalization.
"We probably have loads of bars on Frankford Avenue, and if it’s anything that’s going to hurt the business district, it’s bars," he said.
Wisniewski agreed, saying, "They are almost equally detrimental to the neighborhood as rehabs."
Large said the fight against bars undoubtedly could be a difficult one, since the state "Liquor Control (Board) is interested in their money, and they supersede us."
Civic members acknowledged that trying to keep unwanted businesses like bars and rehab facilities out of the neighborhood will be difficult, but that did not deter them from reaching for their goal.
"We have a battle here," said Clay, the association president. "We have a real situation where we truly have a fight." ••
Reporter Jon Campisi can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jcampisi@phillynews.com