Residents respond to ideas for rehab homes

As Newport Beach officials prepare for public hearings on new rules governing group homes, the community has begun to respond. So far, the proposed changes are getting mixed reviews.

While a representative of one group of drug and alcohol recovery homes told the City Council the proposed rules are unnecessary and based on unfounded complaints, some residents said the rules are a good start but don’t go far enough.

Some residents have been lobbying in recent months for tighter rules on drug and alcohol recovery facilities, which they say cause noise and crime and are over-concentrated on the Balboa Peninsula and in West Newport.

The council agreed Wednesday to start changing the zoning code in response to community concerns. The new rules would require group homes for seven or more people to get city permits, which include a public hearing process and could be appealed.

Homes for six or fewer people also would need permits if they operate in conjunction with other facilities. The council also continued for five months a moratorium on new group homes.

In a recent city survey on the effects of group homes in residential neighborhoods, some of the 47 respondents complained about illegal parking, loud conversations and arguments, second-hand smoke and cigarette trash, drug sales, and other problems.

The situation is worsened by the high concentration of recovery homes and smaller residential lots in Newport, which puts the homes closer together, said Denys Oberman, who has been pressing the council for months to adopt tighter group-home rules.

“When they smoke, we smoke,” she said. “When they make noise, we hear it.”

As to the new rules, she said, it’s a good thing that the city is recognizing that the recovery homes are more institutional than residential and should go through a review process. But the rules don’t address the homes that are already there — and that’s a problem, she said.

“The residents strongly feel that there’s an over-concentration of homes … and that the concentration is many times what other communities have relative to their population in the state of California,” Oberman said.

But at least one operator of drug-recovery homes in Newport disputes the residents’ claims. Attorney C. Edward Dilkes, who represents Sober Living By the Sea, told the council Wednesday that residents have mischaracterized his client’s facilities.

In a letter to the city, Dilkes wrote that Sober Living homes have never been cited for noise violations and they take care to clean up cigarette butts, and their analysis of police and emergency calls showed Sober Living clients require less service than other residential addresses in their neighborhoods. He added that the moratorium and the changes to the rules won’t solve any of the problems the city is trying to address.

Dilkes also said Sober Living officials have been left out of the discussion of changes that will affect their facilities. His client, Dilkes said, “really hasn’t been able to enter the process except literally by shoving its way through the door.”

Residents and group-home representatives are likely to continue to give input as the new rules move through the planning commission and the council. Public hearings on the new regulations have not yet been set.