Town Attorney Looks At St. Edmund's Zoning Conundrum

A legal analysis by the town attorney of the zoning conundrum arising from the St. Edmund's goal to establish a male substance abusers raises more questions than answers.

And those questions of law may not be just local land use regulations, but could include state and federal constitutional issues as well as a myriad of federal laws including those that protect religious land use, the Americans with Disabilities Act and even perhaps the Fair Housing Act.

According to a July 28 letter from Town Attorney Thomas J. Londregan to Planning Director Bill Haase as well as all the town land use boards and commissions, additional “factual analysis” is needed to determine if “federal law trumps local zoning.”

St. Edmund’s Retreat Inc., owner and operator of the 11-acre retreat, recently withdrew its application for a Certificate of Need to the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access for its plan to establish an in-patient treatment facility that would provide 90-day intermediate care and 18 month long-term rehabilitation.

The application was pulled just days before a scheduled public hearing on the plan, one widely questioned and criticized in the
community. Citizens mobilized to question and protest the proposed substance abuse treatment facility across from a residential neighborhood and close to the that in addition to providing programming for families, runs a child care facility. And a May incident where a 21-year-old upstate New York man receiving substance abuse treatment got a hold of wine said to have been
forgotten and then, presumably intoxicated, held a man also staying on the island at knifepoint unsuccessfully attempting to strong-arm rob him of his wallet and car keys made his way across the causeway to Mason’s Island, burglarized a home and stole a car, may have been the proverbial straw for many in the community.

Karen Wilson, spokesperson for the Rev. Thomas F.X. Hoar, President of St. Edmund’s Retreat, said last month the plan would likely be resubmitted but only after a dialogue with the community.

Enders Island is in a residential, coastal zone and as such, the Catholic retreat—used also for rehabilitation or as a treatment facility—is not permitted according to town zoning regulations.  But the location
is also the site of lectures, spiritual development workshops, adult education, and annual fairs and other events. In its marketing literature, St. Edmund's says it can “sleep and feed up to 70" people.

The zoning question becomes this: Do the St. Edmund's retreats predate 1961 zoning regulations making them pre-existing, non-conforming uses. Or, is the use limited to what it was deeded as in 1954: “a novitiate and retreat” for priests from the Diocese of Norwich.St. Edmund's began hosting retreats open to the public in 1969.

But the local zoning question may be moot if trumped by federal or state law, Londregan writes.

Even if it is found to be in violation of town zoning, St. Edmund’s could claim state or  federal rights and protections under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized persons Act, the First Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution or the Connecticut Constitution’s religious freedom’s protections, the ADA which protects the defined disabled (some addicts might qualify), or the FHA which requires that recovering addicts be afforded equal opportunity in safe, drug-free housing.