DRUG CLINIC SITING OK'D

Methadone clinic cleared for south Everett

EVERETT -- The city's planning commission approved a measure Tuesday night
restricting the location of a proposed methadone clinic to commercial areas
south of the Boeing Freeway, Highway 526.

The vote was unanimous, with Commissioner Earl Dutton absent.

The measure's passage means it will now come before the Everett City Council
for final approval. The council is expected to hold a public hearing on the
measure July 16.

The planning commission's measure, which restricts the number of methadone
clinics in Everett to one and keeps it out of downtown, was endorsed by
Everett Police Chief Jim Scharf.

"In law enforcement's opinion," said Scharf, "the people who go for
methadone treatment are seeking to solve their problems. We see this as a
positive for these people addicted to heroin."

Dave Anderson, chairman of the Holly Neighborhood Association in South
Everett, said he doesn't want a clinic near his neighborhood.

"You have a grade school, a Catholic school and Explorer Middle School
nearby," Anderson said. "This is just discriminating against the people who
live south of 526."

Representatives for Therapeutic Health Services, a Seattle-based agency that
operates two methadone clinics in King County, prefers a downtown location.

Although the nonprofit agency has looked at two sites south of the Boeing
freeway, both would require costly renovations, the agency's executive
director, Norman Johnson, has said.

But city officials say the city's core, which has undergone an extensive
$300 million facelift, is no place for a methadone clinic.

Methadone is used to treat people addicted to opiates such as heroin and
illegally obtained narcotic prescription drugs such as OxyContin or
Percoset.

State studies reveal a need for three Snohomish County methadone clinics
each serving 350 clients. Currently, county residents must commute to King
County clinics for treatment.

More than half of the 350 clients who receive methadone treatment at
Therapeutic Health's Shoreline clinic are residents of Snohomish County.

At the start of the year, the agency began negotiating for a site at Grand
Avenue and Wall Street in downtown Everett. The building formerly had housed
a medical clinic.

But negotiations collapsed in February when the city council imposed a
six-month moratorium on the siting of new drug and alcohol treatment centers
inside city limits. The move effectively blocked Therapeutic Health from
locating a clinic downtown.

State law prevents cities from excluding methadone treatment centers --
considered essential public facilities -- from locating within their
boundaries. However, local lawmakers can use zoning laws to regulate where
inside city limits they can locate.

Residents of the Port Gardner neighborhood described the proposed Grand
Avenue location as too close to residential areas. City officials agreed,
adding that the city's core was already home to 11 of the city's 18 drug
treatment and counseling centers.

"City policymakers were concerned about the concentration of these
facilities in and around the downtown core," city planning director Paul
Roberts said.

To satisfy state law and council members, the planning commission chose the
area south of the Boeing freeway because of its distance from downtown
Everett and some residential areas.

Some of the choices where a clinic could locate south of downtown include
about a 2 1/2mile commercial zone along Evergreen Way and another half-mile
commercial zone along Everett Mall Way, city planners say.

"Our research has not shown that there is a negative impact when these
facilities are well run," Roberts said.

The county's first methadone clinic is scheduled to open in early August
near Arlington. It will be managed by the Stillaguamish Tribes.