Recovery homes on council’s plate again
Deirdre Newman
An effort to create a law regulating drug and alcohol recovery homes
to make them compatible with their residential neighborhoods has been
painstaking, but city officials are hoping to approve one on Tuesday.
The City Council will again look at proposed changes to the zoning
code Tuesday to appease residents who have complained that the homes
generate noise, litter and other problems.
The council approved new standards for the homes in July, but
legal counsel suggested changes that required another approval in
August. Now, another set of revisions is up for consideration.
This process is not surprising when the city tries tackling such a
complex issue for the first time, City Councilman Steve Bromberg
said.
“It’s been an educational process for all of us, especially when
we find out that for [homes with] six or less people, there’s
absolutely [no regulation] you can do,” Bromberg said.
State law says treatment centers housing up to six people can’t be
regulated. Those serving seven or more people are protected by
housing discrimination laws, so the city has only so much room to
maneuver.
In July, the council mandated that group homes serving seven or
more people in areas zoned for 1 1/2 and two units per acre and
multi-family residences will have to apply for special permits. The
Planning Commission will evaluate requests for these permits and
consider whether the facilities meet the zoning code for traffic and
other requirements.
In August, the council approved some changes to the new rules. The
most significant was allowing clients, described as transients
because of the frequent turnover in the homes, to live in them, said
former City Atty. Bob Burnham, now working as a consultant. This
change was made after recovery-home representatives said it would
harm their ability to treat clients if members who stayed a short
time weren’t allowed.
The council will on Tuesday consider additional changes to the law
passed in July. Chief among them is a change reflecting the city’s
realization that it can’t treat seven or more unrelated people living
in a house as roommates and members of a treatment home any
differently.
Gerry Marshall, president of Narconon Southern California, said
the rules still discriminate against group homes because of
restrictions against having assemblies.
“If they are not going to allow people to have an AA meeting to
address alcohol issues at the recovery home, they [shouldn’t] allow
regular residents to do the same,” Marshall said.
Linda Orozco, who along with some of her neighbors brought
complaints about the treatment homes to the council’s attention a
year ago, said the new rules don’t matter, because the city isn’t
even enforcing the rules currently on the books for group homes.
“No matter what changes they do, they are rearranging the deck
chairs on the Titanic,” Orozco said. “In 12 months, the city has
enforced not one single current zoning ordinance that would help us,
including the certificate of occupancy [for these homes].”
* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)
574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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