In re Howard Center Renovation Permit

Howard Center, Inc. (Howard) operated two out-patient methadone clinics, one in Burlington and one in South Burlington. The clinics provided medical treatment for opioid dependence. Each clinic’s staff comprised licensed physicians and nurses who performed medical examinations and administered methadone. The clinics also employed substance-abuse clinicians, case managers, a psychiatrist, and a psychologist to provide individual and group counseling, among other services, to implement the clinics’ whole-patient approach. Howard planned to relocate the South Burlington clinic to an office space in an existing medical office. Howard applied for a permit to renovate the interior of the office space. The proposal for the renovation did not involve any changes in use under the zoning ordinance. The zoning administrator granted the renovation permit. South Burlington School District (the school district) (plaintiff) appealed the approval of the permit to the South Burlington Design Review Board (the review board). The school district argued that the clinic met the definition of social services because a majority of the clinic staff provided counseling for psychological problems, which was a new or additional use that required conditional-use and site-plan review. However, counseling was only one part of a patient’s treatment plan, which required a threshold medical diagnosis of opioid dependence, physical examinations, and the daily administration of medicine according to medical protocols. The review board found that the renovation of the clinic did not involve a change of use from the permitted medical-office use. The school district appealed to the trial court. The trial court found that the methadone clinic constituted a permitted medical-office use. The school district appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court.