Citizens file rehab lawsuit

The drug and alcohol rehabilitation home activist group Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach filled a $250 million lawsuit against the city of Newport Beach Tuesday just hours before the City Council gave final approval to a new ordinance to tighten regulations on the homes.

“We expect the court to find the damage higher,” said Concerned Citizens member Denys Oberman.

The group, made up of Newport Beach residents who said their neighborhoods are overrun by recovering drug addicts seeking treatment, alleges the city has been negligent in its enforcement of city codes that are supposed to regulate the homes, Oberman said. The suit also alleges the city did not give the public enough opportunities to weigh in on the new ordinance, she said.

The council pushed through a hotly contested ordinance on the homes that both rehabilitation home operators and residents have criticized. Rehabilitation home owners claimed the rules are discriminatory, while residents said the new regulations don’t go far enough.

“I have been spit at; I am harassed constantly,” said Balboa Peninsula resident Cindy Koller, who claims rehabilitation homes bring criminal activity to her neighborhood. “You’re here to protect us, not big business.”

The council voted unanimously to tentatively approve the new rules earlier this month, which would require most homes get use permits to remain open and subject the homes to a public hearing process to gain approval. The ordinance is the most comprehensive and progressive of its kind, said Councilman Michael Henn.

“While it does not do everything the residents would like, it accomplishes a great deal,” Henn said.

Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach lobbied the city to include language in the new ordinance that would keep rehab homes from operating within 1,000 feet of each other, and schools, parks and bars.

The city rejected the residents’ demands because it claimed such rules could be seen as discriminatory if they were challenged in court.

“We’ve pushed this pretty much as far as we can go from a legal view,” said attorney Jim Markman, the city’s special legal counsel on the rehabilitation home issue.

In other business, the city approved a roughly $2 million plan to construct underground utilities in one Newport Heights neighborhood.

The plan will create a new utility assessment district for the neighborhood bound by Riverside Avenue, Cliff Drive, Tustin Avenue and West Coast Highway.

Overhead telephone and electrical lines in the new district would be converted to underground utilities. The project would be funded by municipal bonds over the next 20 years.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].