U.S. District Court: Pikesville methadone clinic can stay for 2

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Oct 10, 2008 by Brendan Kearney

The Pikesville methadone clinic that has, since its founding, beaten back Baltimore County's efforts to force it to relocate, may remain where it stands for another two years, a judge has ruled in U.S. District Court.

Judge Catherine C. Blake's decision, which comes eight months after an appeals court affirmed that the county's 2002 zoning ordinance was unconstitutional as applied to A Helping Hand LLC, represents a middle ground in the longstanding dispute.

The clinic had requested Blake to permanently enjoin the county from enforcing the law against it, as she had in 2006. The county said the clinic should either accept a nonconforming use designation or cease operations at 116 Slade Ave.

The county argued that the zoning ordinance itself --which prohibits "state-licensed medical clinics" from operating within 750 feet of a residential neighborhood -- is valid, and the fact that it was applied unconstitutionally six years ago did not absolve the clinic from complying with it now.

Blake coupled the two-year injunction with an order to end all

administrative and punitive proceedings against the clinic in connection with the ordinance, County Bill 39-02.

A Helping Hand's lawyer, Jimmy R. Rock of the Washington office of Ross, Dixon & Bell LLP, called that a "pretty good outcome," given the relevant case law.

Joel Prell, the for-profit clinic's owner, appreciates the reprieve but now has to determine his next moves -- legal or physical.

"We have some time to make a decision as to how we should proceed from here," said Prell, who opened a similar clinic in Westminster in July. "There's obviously some issues left on the table."

Among them is whether to retry the issue of County Bill 39-02's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"There's nothing in the 4th Circuit opinion that forecloses us from retrying those claims," Rock said, adding there were no plans to appeal Blake's latest ruling.

Assistant County Attorney John G. Cook, who has represented the county throughout the six-year legal tussle, referred questions to Deputy County Attorney John E. Beverungen, who did not return a call for comment.

At trial in 2006, Blake found the ordinance violated the ADA. A jury found it also violated A Helping Hand's constitutional right to due process.

But in February, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Blake's injunction. While the court affirmed the due process violations, it said the jury, not Blake, should have determined whether there were ADA violations.

The panel sent the case back to Blake to determine the appropriate remedy, and the full 4th Circuit declined to review the matter.

High marks

The clinic, which shares its brown brick building with a used- car brokerage, a modeling studio and the Real Truth Full Gospel Ministry, serves 350 clients at present, according to Prell. He estimates it has served a total of 1,100 to 1,200 opiate addicts, offering them methadone or suboxone, a brand of buprenorphine.

Most of the clinic's patients live or work nearby and come for treatment of their own accord, Prell said.

"We're able to handle the people who come in there without any disruption to the neighborhood," he said, noting the clinic has regularly received the high marks from state and federal licensors and accreditors. "It's a very smooth process and we haven't had any problems."

At the July 1 hearing on injunctive relief, one county attorney said the government "will do everything within its power to streamline the process ... should [the clinic] need to move," according to Blake's opinion published on Thursday.

In court filings, county lawyers note that three of the county's six methadone clinics have opened since the ordinance was passed.

Despite the county's assurances, Prell said, moving to a new location is no simple matter.

"That's not something that's going to be very easy to do," he said, referencing failed searches in the past. "All the animosity I've had from the community."

The law, which required alcohol and drug treatment centers to relocate within six months, was passed hours after A Helping Hand received state approval to operate in April 2002, and was made retroactive.

County Council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz, who sponsored the bill, was out of the office Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

The county had offered a settlement whereby the clinic could stay at its current location as long as it agreed to be classified as a nonconforming use, a county attorney announced in July -- meaning it would be subject to closer scrutiny if it tried to change the building's footprint or use.