Welcome to EllwoodCity.org.  The "unofficial" site of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania

07/25/2008 07:25 AM

 

Transitional Living Facility Proposed In Wayne Township July 25, 2008 ECO Staff -- Laure Cioffi, senior journalist WAYNE TWP. – A transitional living facility that could hold up to 200 people has been proposed in Wayne Township. Township planning commission members recently received plans for the project and the township has forwarded those plans onto the Lawrence County Planning office for review. The proposed two-story facility would be located on Wampum Road on the current site of GJ’s Auto Service and Sales. According to papers submitted to county planning for review, the facility would be on 5.23 acres of land. Plans were submitted by New Castle attorney Gabe Cilli and Robert Shrock under the name GCRS, according to the county. Cilli and Shrock did not return calls from EllwoodCity.org seeking more information about the project. Mourice Waltz, Wayne Township’s code enforcement consultant, said the county and township can only review the plans as they pertain to land use requirements. “Since there is no zoning in Wayne Township, all we can look at are set backs and minimum lot size requirements. We don’t look at usage,” he said. Ed Leymarie, a member of the Wayne Township planning commission, said the developers told him the two-story building would include 25 or 26 dormitory-style rooms that could hold up to 200 people. The facility could employ up to 50 people, Leymarie said. Leymarie said the developers did not discuss who would be housed in the facility. Transitional living facilities are temporary housing for anybody from the homeless to prison inmates transitioning back into the community. “We have very limited power,” Leymarie said of the township planning commission. “We do a technical review to make sure it meets the standards of land development.” (Laure Cioffi can be reached at LaureCioffi@EllwoodCity.org)