Marietta City Council authorizes injunction against Oriana House

Marietta City Council narrowly voted to authorize an injunction against the sale of the Woman’s Home to Oriana House Inc. Thursday.

4. Ambiguity in city zoning codes.

Resolution 56 was introduced and read before a crowd of seven parents/grandparents with children attending St. Mary Catholic School, plus an additional eight members of the audience for an unusually full regular business meeting of council Thursday.

Councilman Mike Scales moved Thursday to read the resolution first, though it appeared as the final agenda item in new business after Council Clerk Nancy Johnson read a letter from the Diocese of Steubenville asking the council not to support the location of Oriana House’s intended residential treatment facility at 812 Third St.

Oriana House Inc. is a private 501(c)3 nonprofit which provides addiction treatment services, community corrections programs and behavioral health services in Ohio. The nonprofit currently operates a halfway house and correctional center in Reno and intends to install an intensive residential treatment facility at the Third Street location.

Oriana House Executive Vice President Bernie Rochford said Thursday after hearing of council’s vote that the nonprofit would be reviewing the matter with its legal counsel.

“I truly hope we can get on with the work of providing these much-needed services in the community.”

Oriana House has previously been issued a certificate by the Marietta City Engineering Department indicating that its intended use of the former Woman’s Home, a retirement home in place for more than 100 years as a nonprofit providing accommodations for aged women of Washington County, was similar.

But the certificate for zoning use was not the final step in the city’s process of allowing residential treatment within a primarily residential zone of the city.

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