That's due in large part to pressure from residents. Some, such as Costa Mesa residents Tegan Hopp and Cindy Brazda, just wanted to learn more at Thursday's meeting. Hopp and Brazda aren't opposed to rehab facilities, but, "Our concerns are that there's nobody regulating them," Brazda said.
Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky said residents complain about commercial delivery trucks visiting the homes and clients smoking and swearing, but one of the biggest issues is the concentration of facilities. Some streets have as many as four in one block, he said.
"Now we're not talking about neighborhoods anymore," he said. "We're talking about institutionalized sober-living zones in the midst of our homes."
Rich Francisco, a Balboa Boulevard property owner who stood in the hallway because he couldn't get a chair, said he hasn't had any problems with the homes near his triplex, but, "Probably like everybody else here, I'm concerned that there just might be too many of the rehab houses."
Residents heard about the issue from Rosansky, attorney Jeff Goldfarb, legislative policy consultant Joe Parra, and Phil Herschman, a representative of Sober Living by the Sea.
Written questions were answered but some of them illustrated the divide between residents and operators of drug and alcohol recovery homes.
A burst of applause from one section of the audience greeted a question about why the treatment centers are being singled out when they benefit the community and help people get their lives back together.
"I thought the tone was extremely prejudicial," Mark Greenberg, executive director of Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach, said after the meeting. "We're in business to save people's lives." Greenberg is willing to work with city officials and residents, he said, but he hoped some overtures would have been made at the meeting.
On the other side are residents such as Carol Wilson of Capistrano Beach, who, along with neighbors, has put up yard signs opposing rehab homes.
