Methadone Clinic Denial Overturned in Court

The Middlesex District Superior Court has ruled that the Planning and Zoning Commission in October of  2020 improperly denied approval to a methadone clinic on Washington Street. Judge Rupal Shaw said that the City Charter and the bylaws of the Commission violate State statutes which state that approval requires a simple majority. 

The Planning and Zoning Commission has 7 seated commissioners, and the Charter states, "A quorum shall consist of six commissioners and decisions shall be taken by affirmative vote of no less than five commissioners."  The Root Center's application was denied because it received only 4 affirmative votes.

The state statute on Planning and Zoning reads, "Such regulations and boundaries shall be established, changed or repealed only by a majority vote of all the members of the zoning commission..." The city attorney argued that this language does not prevent towns and cities from specifying a higher standard, and zoning regulations are a local concern. Judge Shah disagreed, she cited a variety of higher court rulings about interpreting state statutes, one of which reads, "Where the words of the statute are plain and unambiguous the intent of the [drafters] in enacting the statute is to be derived from the words used.” 

The Commission has until December 2 to file an appeal. It meets with the Chris Forte, the city attorney representing it on Tuesday, November 23 at 7PM. All of these discussions will be in executive session, to discuss the litigation. 

If the Commission does not appeal the decision, or fails to win such an appeal, it must revisit the Root Center's application for a methadone clinic. 

The application process had two parts, a legislative change to the zoning map to allow a Substance Abuse/Mental Health (SMH) floating zone to be applied to the Washington Street site, followed by a site plan review to evaluate whether the Root Center's plans conform with the requirements of a special exception for the SMH zone. Because the Commission considered the application to apply the SMH floating zone to have been denied, it unanimously voted to deny the site plan review. 

If the court's decision stands, the Commission must now consider the much more narrow question of whether the site plan conforms with the requirements for a special exception within the SMH zone. 

Notes: The author was Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission at the time of the Root Center application, he voted in favor. This story has also been covered by CT Examiner.