GUILFORD, CT — The Guilford Board of Selectmen on Tuesday took no action on a petition aimed at stopping a proposed methadone clinic from coming to 439 Boston Post Road, the site of the former Play Cafe.
The petition, which has been circulating in recent weeks, garnered over 60 signatures from the community and called on the selectmen to hold a special town meeting to discuss plans and take a vote on suspending renovations to the proposed facility, which will be run by the APT Foundation.
The APT Foundation was founded in 1970 by members of the Yale School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and is among the oldest treatment programs in the U.S., according to the foundation’s website.
There are also clinics in New Haven, West Haven and North Haven.
More specifically, the petition said plans should be halted until public hearings are held, impacts on property values, crime, traffic, and police and fire budgets are understood, and background checks into the APT Foundation and the effects of its clinics on communities are evaluated.
Additionally, the petition said renovations should stop until modifications to the existing Guilford zoning ordinances have been made to clarify “medical use,” and until minimum distances regarding addiction services to residences, schools and daycare centers are established.
First Selectman Matt Hoey said Tuesday he asked Town Attorney Peter Barrett to render an opinion on the petition.
“The action requested by the current petition is for the Town Meeting to mandate a suspension of renovation work at a privately owned property until several itemized conditions have been met. This is not an action that the Town Meeting is lawfully authorized to take pursuant to our charter,” Barrett said in his written legal opinion.
Barrett noted that historically, petitions to set a town meeting have been denied.
“The Board is under no legal obligation to convene a Town Meeting as requested in the petition,” Barrett concluded. “This position is consistent with past legal opinions provided to the Town and it is consistent with past actions of the Board of Selectmen.”
Guilford resident Dave Holman, who helped spearhead the petition and the call to stop the clinic from coming to Guilford, said the selectmen’s decision to essentially reject the petition was “disingenuous.”
Holman expressed concerns about the location of the clinic, and said it’s 470 feet away from a large daycare facility, and about 250 feet away from the closest house.
He told Patch he’s concerned about the effects the clinic would have on property values in town, and the overall safety of the community.
Holman also said he was concerned about how the whole process to bring the clinic to Guilford had played out, saying the property was sold without proper notice and there were no public hearings to gauge the response from the community about plans to bring an addiction clinic to town.
The building is located in the Post Road Business District, which allows for medical and dental clinics/facilities, with site approval.
Hearst CT previously reported that no public hearings are required for an “as-of-right use.”
The APT Foundation could open the 4,093-square-foot outpatient clinic in July or August, Hearst CT noted. Regular health care services will also be offered.
“[First Selectman Hoey] made the decision unilaterally by himself to do this, knowing that there would be no hearings,” Holman claimed. Hoey has said the clinic’s services would be beneficial to Guilford and surrounding towns.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Selectman Charles Havrda said the town tried to get information out.
“We planned multiple public hearings, meetings, to get that information out to the public. So few people showed up, we didn’t even schedule a second one,” he said.
Hoey said aninformational public meeting will be held with APT Foundation officials on Feb. 27 at the Greene Community Center in Guilford. The meeting is slated to begin at 7 p.m.
“They are willing to talk to our community to try and take out some of the uncertainties and some of the fears related to the opening of that facility. I look forward to hearing their comments,” Hoey said.
The APT Foundation will discuss their hours of operation, the potential clients who would use the facility, traffic impacts, and issues related to security, Hoey said. There will also be a question and answer session.
Before the meeting from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Holman said residents will have a chance to sign two “adjourned referendum” petitions he hopes will bring about change.
“One of them is going to say that our zoning ordinances should be amended so that addiction clinics will not be permitted closer than 500 feet to the closest house, or 1,000 feet to the closest school or daycare facility,” Holman said. “The other petition is to ask [town officials] to enter into discussions with APT corporation to move this clinic to a more appropriate area in Guilford, one that’s either zoned industrial or one that complies with those footage requirements — a commercial area.”
Hoey said he’d look into offering a Zoom component for the meeting on Feb. 27, but it’s unclear yet if that will be an option since the meeting room is not equipped with the proper technology.
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