Group home planned in former New Bedford Funeral Home on County St.
A former funeral home on County Street is being considered for use as a group home by a company specializing in sober living.
NEW BEDFORD – A proposed 13-bedroom, 32-space sober living home in a former funeral home on County Street requires city approval.
This is the unanimous decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Applicants NewLife LLC of Burlington disagree.
They say they have the right to convert the former Wilson Funeral Chapel at 479 County Street into a “community housing facility for the handicapped.”
According to her lawyer Andrew Tine, terminology is important.
“These are often referred to as ‘sober homes,’ but the more technical term would actually be ‘community housing for people with disabilities,'” Tine said.
That is their proposal and is protected by state and federal law, he said.
A dormitory is a “different thing”
A “group home,” he said during a ZBA hearing on August 22, is “a different matter.”
Using a group home requires government approval and requires a specific form of treatment, he said.
In comparison, “shared housing for the disabled is simply people living together under certain house rules and practicing abstinence. The operator of the facility does not offer treatment. It is simply clean living,” he said.
Tine said his interpretation of the law has been upheld in the state’s appeals court, including in two cases he argued. One of them was a very similar proposal in Fall River, he said.
NewLife LLC appealed to the Board the Planning Authority’s decision that a special permit from the ZBA was required for the construction of the rehabilitation center.
The application stated that a “group home” was proposed
The ZBA’s decision to dismiss the appeal took the terminological differences into account.
The developer had stated in his application that he was proposing a “communal residential building”. This was also the decision of the building authority, which refused to grant a building permit without the special permit from the ZBA.
Tine said this was a mistake and asked the board to give the developer the opportunity to withdraw its application and resubmit it under the appropriate conditions.
Not a group home. It is “communal living for the disabled”
“This needs to be corrected. It is not a group home. It is a type of community housing for the disabled,” he said.
The ZBA rejected the application.
Member Jonathan Carvalho said it was inappropriate to change the bill in the middle of the public hearing on the appeal.
Unless an appeal is filed in court, the applicants will need a special permit (OK) from the ZBA due to the rejection of the application, which includes a public hearing, before they can convert the former funeral home.
The proposal calls for 32 residents, a home manager and two assistants.
According to appraisal documents, NewLife LLC purchased the three-story, 90,000-square-foot building, built in 1843, on March 29 for $515,000.
Tine said the proposal concerns 32 residents with a home manager and two assistants.
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The former funeral home was one of the oldest in the city and had been located at the County Street location for decades.
