Embattled rehab center abruptly closes

The embattled drug and alcohol rehabilitation home Newport Coast Recovery has closed, Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff said today.

The 29-bed men’s treatment center operated out of a seven-unit apartment complex down the street from Newport Elementary School, as well as several other drug and alcohol recovery homes.

The rehabilitation home was slated make its case tonight to remain open before the Newport Beach City Council after a city-commissioned hearing officer ordered the home to close earlier this year.

City officials learned hours before the hearing that the home had abruptly closed last week.

Newport Coast co-owner Mike Newman and the center’s attorney, Chris Brancart, could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Calls to the center’s main phone line on were answered by a recording stating the number has been disconnected.

Newport Coast came under fire after the mothers of two underage boys, who went in for treatment at the center, testified at a public hearing in July that the boys were not supervised or given adequate care.

Newport Coast and two other local rehabilitation homes, Pacific Shores Recovery and Yellowstone Recovery, are suing Newport Beach in federal court, claiming a city ordinance that the council passed in 2008 discriminates against recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.

Aimed at curbing a growing number of sober-living homes, the ordinance requires most homes to go through a public hearing process and obtain permits to remain open.

A City Council appeals hearing on Pacific Shores Recovery is slated to go forward at 7:30 p.m.