New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Hill residents must save fight for another day
NEW HAVEN — Opponents of a proposed inpatient substance abuse treatment center at Cedar and Minor streets were unable to voice their concerns Tuesday, but left the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting ready to regroup and fight another day.
The Cornell ScottHill Health Center was seeking an exception to parking rules in its plan to move and expand the center from Grant Street to 232236 Cedar St., adding 12 women’s beds to the 40 existing men’s beds. However, officials from the center asked Monday that the issue be tabled. There was no reason given.
“It’s a positive thing for us because it gives us more time to work on what we need to work on … galvanizing the community,” said Leslie Radcliffe, of King Place, who attended the meeting at the
Hall of Records as a Hill section neighbor but who also sits on the City Plan Commission, which will have to approve the proposal.
Howard Boyer, of Congress Avenue, chairman of the Hill North Community Management Team, said the group’s meeting Thursday — postponed from Tuesday because of the BZA hearing — would focus on organizing against the proposal. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the John C. Daniels Interdistrict Magnet School of International Communication, 569 Congress Ave.
“Right now we’re not supporting the project at all,” Boyer said. “We’re standing up for the community, for the families and the school.”
Residents may have a difficult time defeating the move from Grant Street to Cedar Street, since the health center owns the building and can use it for its proposed purpose as a matter of right. But Boyer said neighbors want to send a message that the Hill has enough social service and substance abuse facilities.
“What we’re trying to do as a management team is to say we’re not tolerating no more,” Boyer said. “We’re actually just standing up and saying, if this one goes through, we’re not going to have no more. We’re a strong management team.”
He said the health center had planned the project for two years or more but had never approached the management team to discuss it. “Our whole thing is, the management team doesn’t have anything against substance abuse (treatment),”
Boyer said. However, he said the location is not a good one.
“It’s near the day care, the library … the Boys Club is near it,” as well as the school, Boyer said.
Maria Rodriguez, of Howard Avenue, said she thought the postponement of the hearing was “in favor of the health center.”
“It’s a terrible thing. They cancel at the last minute. I’m chair of the 3rd Ward and I’m very angry because this facility is two blocks from my house,” she said.
Paul Perrelli, educational coordinator of LULAC Head Start at 250 Cedar St., less than a block from the proposed treatment center, said he was concerned about “the proposed expansion of parking. … We have 178 children in our center; a lot of our families don’t drive, they walk; and they come from all areas around Cedar Street,” he said.
He said there have been issues of drug use in LULAC’s parking lot. “I’m not sure what exactly could happen. I’m not going to predict, but I’m looking out for the safety of our families and children.”
A representative of Cornell ScottHill Health Center could not be reached Tuesday evening.
The special exception seeks to allow 36 offstreet parking spaces when 40 are required and to allow for offsite spaces up to 1,285 feet away, versus the 300 feet in zoning regulations.
If the BZA grants the exception, the proposal must be approved by the City Plan Commission and ultimately by the Board of Alders.