Downtown New Bedford Eyed for Possible Methadone Clinic

The New Bedford Zoning Board of Appeals will consider a proposal this month for a "medical clinic" to be located at 268-270 Union Street at the corner of Seventh Street in Downtown New Bedford.

The board's October 20, 2022 agenda contains a request for a "special permit" to sidestep the city's zoning use regulations "to operate a medical clinic named Recovery Connection Centers of America" at the Union Street property.

The special permit is sought by Tetrault Real Estate LLC, 161 Wilbur Avenue, Somerset, Massachusetts, and Michael Brier, Recovery Connection Centers of America, 381 Wickenden Street, Providence, Rhode Island.

The agenda item provides no specific details of what Recovery Connection Centers of America plans to do at the Union Street property, currently occupied by Fall River Pawn Brokers, and what was the Law Offices of Dussault & Gomes, P.C.

Recovery Connection Centers of America, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, operates inpatient and outpatient treatment at facilities in Danvers and Westminster, Massachusetts, offering "Medicated Assistant Treatment (MAT), includes Methadone and VIVITROL injections for opiates and alcohol."

Acute Treatment Services (ATS) and Clinical Stabilization Services (CSS) are also available.

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The Addiction Treatment Locator, Assessment, and Standards Platform (ATLAS) lists a dozen Recovery Connection Centers of America locations in Massachusetts. The list includes the proposed Union Street location currently before the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Other Massachusetts locations, according to ATLAS, include 145 Faunce Corner Road, North Dartmouth; 101 President Avenue, Fall River; and 59 Broadway, Taunton.

The Zoning Board of Appeals has said the October 20, 2022 meeting "is being held remotely consistent with the Act Relative to Extending Certain State of Emergency Accommodations, suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law."

The board will conduct a virtual public hearing on Zoom on this issue and other matters before it, and provides more information on the City of New Bedford website on how to participate in the meeting.