🔒New Haven plans for relocated methadone clinic come under fire

New Haven city planning officials faced vocal criticism Tuesday evening at a virtual public hearing on the proposal to relocate a substance use treatment facility to Sargent Drive. The city has reached an agreement with healthcare provider APT Foundation to redevelop a 1.5-acre parking lot in the Long Wharf development that was formerly part of Gateway Community College. APT proposes to build a 36,000-square-foot medical facility where it would consolidate its operations from two other current sites, an office and treatment facility at 1 Long Wharf Drive and a methadone clinic in Congress Avenue. The Congress Avenue clinic has been controversial for many years with neighbors saying it attracts drug dealing and occasionally violence. APT said it has dispersed some of its former New Haven treatment facilities into North Haven, West Haven and Guilford and reduced the number of daily treatment visits to 200 from 1,100 in 2018. “No neighborhood is exempt from the need for addiction treatment and practically every family has had some impact by it,” Joe Williams, the attorney representing APT, said during the hearing. The ability to combine all of its operations in one location, including administration, addiction and behavioral health treatment, primary care and a pharmacy would create a “state-of-the-art practice setting,” he said. The city has not revealed the sale price for the site, but says that APT is required to pay the same amount that New Haven will lay out to acquire the land from the state. Former state representative and city official Jason Bartlett urged the planners to reject the proposal saying the treatment clinic would impact the city’s ability to attract other development to the area, including restaurants, hotels, offices and tourism. “No comparable city places such facilities on its prime waterfront,” he said. “Cities like Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and San Francisco all restrict high-impact social service uses on their waterfront zones.” Angela Hatley, the communications director of Hill South Community Management Team, described Long Wharf as the Hill neighborhood’s economic development zone. “We’re trying so hard to develop this land into something the city can benefit from,” she said. “To locate APT there would be detrimental to the overall character of the neighborhood. It puts a damper on anything positive that we’re trying to bring to this community.” Others spoke in favor of the proposal. Dr. Erica Heiman, an addiction medicine specialist at Yale, said the Congress Avenue clinic has become a hub for drug use and dealing because of its location in a neighborhood. “An ATP methadone clinic at Long Wharf presents an excellent alternative to this situation that currently can be dangerous for patients such as mine who seek treatment,” she said.