The owner of a local home for men seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addictions is making what may be his third unsuccessful attempt to operate legally in the city.

Harold Hinchman, owner of Agora House for Men, has requested that Gainesville rezone the property at 1050 Park St. to allow for a group home.

While the City Council will make the final decision next month, Hinchman’s request will be heard at the city’s Planning and Appeals Board meeting Tuesday. The city’s planning staff has recommended the board deny it.

Hinchman is already using the two-story home illegally. The property is zoned as a single-family residence. Its accompanying Residential-I zoning does not allow for group homes.

But Hinchman has asked that the city rezone the property to a more group-home friendly Residential-II zoning with a special use permit that would make the group home legal.

The city’s planning staff has recommended that the planning board deny Hinchman’s application. Community Development Director Rusty Ligon said he does not believe the group home fits in the rest of the neighborhood. The city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan relegates the area around the home to a single-family residential use.

“We believe that would be spot zoning,” Ligon said.

The City Marshal’s office cited the Agora House for Men on Oct. 23 for running a group home in the Park Street home without a valid occupancy permit.

Hinchman is already involved in a lawsuit with the city over a 2007 decision that denied him the same needed permits to operate a group home in a Residential-II zoning district.

In Sept. 2007, the Gainesville City Council denied Hinchman’s request for special-use permits in three homes on Ivey Terrace and Northside Drive.

And again in Dec. 2007, the City Council denied a request to move Agora House for Men into two buildings in Midtown.

Hinchman and the owner of another group home in the city filed suit against the city in March 2008, claiming the city violated the Federal Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by requiring the group homes to move.

Both the city and the plaintiffs have filed for summary judgment in the case, but the outcome has yet to be decided in the U.S. District Court in Gainesville.