Record: Rehab gripes drop

Longtime Newport Beach resident Barbara Roy has an ocean view from her living room, which sits only a few feet from Narconon.

For years, Roy worried about Narconon clients who she said would loiter and chain smoke in the area.

A steady barrage of delivery trucks and garbage pickups past her house also were a nuisance.

The treatment center is cleared for a daytime occupancy of 49 people and 27 at night.

Narconon use to be constantly abuzz with activity, but the place is quieter now, Roy said.

“It’s really calmed down,” Roy said on Friday. “There’s not much activity except for people coming and going.”

The number of police calls for service to drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in Newport Beach dropped from 2007 to 2008, according to records obtained by the Daily Pilot, and a few of the homes have closed.

It’s been a year since Newport Beach passed an ordinance aimed at thinning out the number of drug and alcohol homes in the city.

Some residents say they’re already noticing a change for the better in their neighborhoods, but other say the city still has a long ways to go.

Roy said she credits Newport’s rehabilitation home ordinance and a city agreement with Narconon for the return of peace to her neighborhood.

“It’s forced them [drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes] to come out of the shadows and be registered,” Roy said. “I give the city full marks. I’m sure the whole coast is watching to see what happens in Newport. It’s making them be good neighbors when they weren’t before.”

Narconon inked a deal in October with Newport Beach officials to vacate its beachfront building by the end of February 2010 when its state alcohol and drug treatment facility permit expires.

Under the terms of the agreement, Narconon must keep its clients from smoking on the beach, alleyways and boardwalk around the building, and minimize traffic in the neighborhood.

The number of police calls for service to Narconon were down in 2008 from 2007, police records show.

Calls for service to Narconon ranged from illegal parking to a suicide threat, the records show.

Police were called to Narconon’s beachfront triplex at 1810 West Oceanfront 17 times in 2007, but only four calls for service were logged in 2008, according to police records.