Counsel:

Aspects of a $250-million lawsuit filed against Newport Beach and more than 10 of the city’s largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation home operators are based on shaky legal ground, the city’s special legal counsel said Thursday.

Attorney Jim Markman said the group cannot sue the city for passing an ordinance residents don’t like.

“You can imagine if people sued every time a legislative body passed something they didn’t like,” Markman said. “There would be chaos.”

Markman said he had not read the entire suit Thursday morning and could not comment on the group’s other claims.

He also said he did not know whether he or his law firm, Richards, Watson & Gershon, would represent the city in the case.

The resident group Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach alleges in the suit the city has violated residents’ civil rights because it has not responded to their complaints about drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes they claim have overrun their neighborhoods.

Residents say the homes are a nuisance that bring crime to the community.

The residents have spent almost $200,000 of their own money on legal counsel and outside consultants to research the issue, group organizer Denys Oberman said.

The group claims the city did not hold adequate public hearings on the issue before passing an ordinance aimed at stopping the spread of homes.

“They [city officials] have not responded to our complaints and put the burden on the citizens to really do the heavy lifting,” Oberman said. “The really sad thing is that our city, rather than work with residents, would rather take an adversarial position than work with us. It’s a sad state of affairs.”

The suit also alleges rehabilitation home operators have violated state and local laws, causing an excess of facilities. The group claims homeowners in Newport’s costal neighborhoods face “a lack of marketability” because of crime and other nuisances the rehabilitation facilities cause, Oberman said. The suit names some of Newport Beach’s largest group home operators, including Morningside Recovery, Narconon Southern California and CRC Health Group, which owns Sober Living by the Sea.

“They have been irresponsible to the community, and they’ve used various schemes to get around the laws,” Oberman said. “They’ve deliberately done that.”

The group filed the suit just hours before the City Council unanimously approved rules that will require most homes get use permits and subject the homes to a public hearing process for approval. The rules will go into effect in late February.

“I’m sorry that the residents are suing us,” Councilman Steve Rosansky said. “I think their efforts would be better spent on helping us to begin the process of implementing the new ordinance.”