Brewery, detox appeal headline busy night for ZBA

By Jay Turner

It was a cautious ‘yes’ for a new coffee bar and nanobrewery at the Draper Mills site but another hard ‘no’ for a proposed drug and alcohol detox center on Turnpike Street at an action-packed meeting of the Canton Zoning Board of Appeals held late last month at Town Hall.

In a public session that ran for two and a half hours on Thursday evening, March 28, the three-member board worked their way through 10 hearings, with the bulk of the time devoted to three continuations that had each drawn significant community interest.

Of the three, the hearing on the detox facility was the most definitive, involving no further testimony from proponents or citizens and ending with a 3-0 ZBA vote to deny the applicant’s appeal of a prior ruling by Building Commissioner Ed Walsh concerning the facility’s status as a hospital. In issuing its denial, the board concurred with Walsh’s August 2018 determination that the project would not be allowed as of right in a business zone because it does not meet the town definition of a hospital.

According to ZBA Chairman Greg Pando, such a facility offers “highly specialized care” as opposed to the “primary health services and medical or surgical care” required by the town. He added that inpatient detox centers are defined and regulated separately from hospitals under state health statutes and he cited case law in which the courts upheld another Massachusetts community’s narrow and specific definition of a hospital.

“It is abundantly clear based on the above findings of fact,” said Pando, “that the proposed use of the property as a [detox facility] is not as of right nor is it a permitted use under the Canton zoning bylaws. It is not a hospital and building commissioner and zoning enforcement officer Walsh did not err in so determining. Thus the petitioner’s appeal seeking reversal should be denied.”

The ruling marks the latest blow for the applicant, Armando Petruzziello, who has now been denied a total of four times since early 2018 — twice by Walsh and twice by the zoning board. Petruzziello’s attorneys had previously argued that the proposed detox met the definition of a “nursing or convalescent home” and that position was rejected on similar grounds. The project has also received widespread opposition from abutters and residents, primarily due to the proximity of the proposed location (225 Turnpike Street) to a residential neighborhood in addition to concerns about traffic and public safety impacts.

Despite the chorus of critics, Pando made a point at the March 28 hearing to emphasize the “serious need” for a detox center in Canton. “[Drug addiction is] not isolated to economically depressed areas but it’s certainly an epidemic that affects all communities,” he said. “No community is immune from its effects.”

Pando also put in a plug for a series of zoning amendments that will be up for consideration at the May town meeting that seek to more clearly define various types of medical uses while identifying areas that are appropriate for detox and other services. “I fully expect that the town will support [these changes],” Pando said.

One of the other major decisions of the night involved a special permit request by Denis Toomey of Church Street Brewing Co. to brew and serve coffee and beer as well as serve food and host entertainment within a 3,000-square-foot space inside the Draper factory site, located off Washington Street between Dedham and Chapman streets.

Toomey and his partner, Amanda Bonanca, had made their initial pitch at the March 14 ZBA meeting and returned on March 28 along with Kristin Draper, president of Draper Knitting, in hopes of securing an approval with the goal of opening by the start of this summer. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to grant the permit, but not without instituting some “controls” in an effort to mitigate the impact to the surrounding residents.

Specifically, the board capped the seating capacity at 75 and limited live music offerings to acoustic only performances on Friday and Saturday evenings while reserving the right to modify or amend any of the terms of the special permit. They also asked that the owners come back in the fall to provide a status update on their first season of operations.

While zoning board members expressed cautious optimism about the business and its fit at the Draper site, the reaction from abutters and other audience members was more mixed. Primary concerns were related to noise, lighting and especially traffic impacts…

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