September 13, 2012
CRANFORD – The Cranford Township Planning Board, last Wednesday evening,
had some tough questions for Warren Connelly, the executive director of
the proposed Counseling Center at Cranford. The company wishes to lease a building
at 27 North Avenue, East, and offer post-detoxification counseling to persons
recovering from chemical and alcohol addiction. It is a subsidiary of Sunrise
Detox, which operates facilities in New Jersey, New York and Florida.
The
owner of the building and the property at 27 North Avenue, East is Paul G.
Argen, who operates MDTV Realty, LLC and is the applicant before the
board. Mr. Argen produces medical infomercials. Representing the
building owner and the counseling center is Gary Goodman of Cranford.
The counseling center wants to take a 10-year lease on the building,
which is in a B-Zone, in Cranford’s special improvement district. The
applicant seeks a permit to make renovations to the building for the
counseling center, which is a permitted use, with a parking waiver
requested, and preexisting non-conforming conditions less than the
minimum required front- and rear-yard setbacks.
The
building itself sits in the middle of the bustling downtown and has been empty
for the past few years; the front door and windows are boarded up. Tax records
obtained by The Westfield Leader indicate that the landlord owes
$36,484 on the building, and $16,932 on the parking lot across the
street. The major concerns expressed by members of the planning board
were not about the physical condition of the building, but rather the nature
of the counseling center and what it would bring to Cranford.
Mr.
Connelly was questioned for over three hours by the board. He explained that
by the time a patient in recovery would come to the outpatient-counseling center,
he or she would have been through in-patient detoxification at one of
their other facilities or somewhere else. They would be “clean,” he
said. He also said that most of the chemically dependent patients had
been addicted to oxycontin.
“There
is so much oxicotin produced in the United States that it is enough for every
man, woman and child who lives here,” he said.
Alcohol
dependence also would be treated at the Cranford location. Mr. Connelly
said the facility would not be anything like a methadone clinic, with people
lined up on the street waiting for methadone. “The patients will be
working people and business owners; i.e. middle class people, who
live real lives, but just messed up,” Mr. Connelly told the board.
He
said there would be about 90 patients a day in and out of the center.
A
concern of board members was whether or not the doctor on-site would be
writing prescriptions. On the center’s planning board application it said
perhaps, in the future, prescriptions would be written.
Mr. Connelly said the doctor would not be
doing that. Mr. Goodman said it was his mistake when he filled out the
application. Mr. Connelly said normally what happens is the patient
would be in their Stirling facility as an inpatient for about six
days, then take part in an intensive outpatient program for about three
weeks. The patients would have to
follow the protocol and meet certain benchmarks before being allowed
to take part in the outpatient-counseling program at the Counseling
Center at Cranford.
Planning
Board member Rita La Brutta said she objected to the application being just
partially filled out, and the mixed testimony on prescriptions. She also
objected to the application fee not being paid.
Board
Attorney Nicholas Giuditta said that Robert Hudak, Cranford’s zoning officer,
had signed off on the application. This did not satisfy the board members, who
had a lot of questions as to the traffic going in and out of the building,
which would operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday, and
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
Board
member Lynda Feder said she would like to see a detailed plan for the counseling
center. Mr. Connelly responded that
he would prepare a flow chart for the board.
Board
member Peter Tyler said he would like to see architectural plans at the next
meeting.
In addition, the owner of the salon All
About Me, which is a neighbor of the proposed counseling center, wanted
to know if patients would be loitering outside smoking cigarettes, noting that
some of her clients might be reluctant to come into her shop if there is going
to be a “crowd hanging around outside.”
Resident
Gerry Grillo asked about the parking.
“We
don’t have enough parking now. If you have 90 patients a day, and some are
in group sessions, some people may overlap into another time period. What about
parking then?,” Mr. Grillo asked.
During
the hearing, Mr. Argen agreed to change the lease on the parking lot from
two years to 10 years.
The
building is about 6,000 square feet and located across the street is a
parking lot that Mr. Argen owns. He said he would allocate 25 spots
for the center. The center is willing to pay the township for seven
permanent parking permits for employees. Kevin Illing, acting board chairman,
asked the applicant to have a full site plan ready for the next meeting, including
details about traffic, dumpster, garbage disposal, lighting, signage,
sanitary sewer, electricity and landscaping. Mr. Giuditta, to allay
the board’s reservations, said no prescription writing could be made
a condition of approval.
The
next meeting of the planning board will be held Wednesday, October 3, at
the municipal building.