Group Homes

Andrew Glazer COSTA MESA -- Wearing a wrinkle-free black suit with polished brass buttons and his hair cropped in a neat flattop, the corporate leadership trainer faced a particularly tough audience Friday. "We sometimes call people like this P-O-Ts: Prisoners of Training," said Jon Forrest, consultant for Dale Carnegie Training. And during the Q & A session following his presentation, the audience started throwing Forrest some hardball questions: "Is your wife pretty?"

Like any true compromise, changes to proposed rules for group homes in Newport Beach may end up pleasing no one. The latest group to become frustrated with the city?s efforts at zoning reform includes some property owners who hold permits to rent out their homes. The rule changes, which the City Council has not yet approved, would end the practice of vacation rentals in single-family districts. ?We are just caught up in the web of this unfairly,? said Craig Batley, an agent for Burr White Realty, which manages about half the short-term vacation rentals in the city.

New drug and alcohol recovery homes in Newport Beach would have to go through public hearings and obtain city permits, under proposed new rules that tighten restrictions on all group homes. Residents on the Balboa Peninsula and in West Newport have complained for several years that group homes, particularly for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, have changed the character of their neighborhoods. The homes and their clients create traffic, noise and litter, residents have said.

After years of escalating complaints from residents and months of information gathering, Newport Beach officials today will hold their first public hearing on proposed new rules to govern group homes. While the category of group homes includes various kinds of homes for the disabled, the biggest concern in Newport has been drug and alcohol recovery facilities and sober living homes. Some residents say the homes generate noise, litter and other nuisances. City officials took up the issue in earnest in 2006 and recently placed a moratorium on group homes so they could hammer out new regulations.

The Newport Beach Planning Commission signed off on new rules to regulate group homes Thursday night, including a key provision that would require facilities such as drug and alcohol recovery homes to be at least 1,000 feet apart in certain parts of the city, Commissioner Michael Toerge said. Group homes that aren’t licensed by the state also would be banned in some of the city’s residential zones. After more than three hours of discussion, the commission approved new rules in a 6-1 vote, with Toerge dissenting.

Elise Gee COSTA MESA -- An inventory of group homes in the city will be presented to the City Council Monday during its monthly study session. Two Costa Mesa group homes, which cater to recovering drug and alcohol addicts, have applications pending with the city for conditional use permits. The applications prompted a request by Councilwoman Linda Dixon to find out how many group homes there are in the city. "I think this survey will determine whether Costa Mesa has reasonably accommodated and whether Costa Mesa is doing their fair share," Dixon said.

Susan McCormack COSTA MESA -- About 300 people are expected to crowd the City Council meeting tonight as council members try to define standards for group homes and decide whether to allow the creation of two such homes. The state-licensed group homes are now exempt from city regulations if they house less than seven residents. The City Council has debated the issue since June, when permits for the two homes, Newport Harbor Recovery and Yellowstone Womens First Step House, were initially approved by the Planning Commission.

NEWPORT BEACH — The City Council has temporarily blocked any new group homes from opening, but how effective the ban will be is an open question. For months some residents have pressed the city to tackle problems they attribute to drug and alcohol recovery homes and sober-living houses, such as noise, litter and crime. The council has responded, but with caution because the facilities are protected by state and federal laws. Residents asked for a moratorium on the homes while the city looks at tougher regulations, and on Tuesday they got it. In a 6-0 vote, with Don Webb absent, the council approved a 45-day moratorium on new group homes and permits for short-term rentals.

Andrew Glazer COSTA MESA -- Armed with a new city ordinance, the city has cracked down on eight group homes that are allegedly operating in conflict with city codes. According to city documents and statements by Mayor Gary Monahan, the state has relocated six women inmates from a work furlough home in Mesa North to another city; cited the owner of a "sober living home" on Orange Avenue with misdemeanor charges for allegedly running the home in a residential zone; and filed misdemeanor charges against Dr. Renee Namaste, who owns a shelter for homeless people on Cork Lane, for allegedly refusing an inspector access to the home.

The Newport Beach City Council voted 6-0 Wednesday to continue a moratorium on new group homes but let the moratorium on new short-term rental permits expire. Councilman Keith Curry was absent. At a special meeting, the council considered rules requiring group homes such as drug and alcohol recovery facilities to apply for city permits to open. The rules also would close a loophole so group homes for six or fewer people would still have to apply for permits if they operate in connection with other facilities.

Newport Beach is considering axing an agreement that allows a recovery home operator to do business in the city, but the move wouldn't automatically shut down any of the company's controversial group homes, city officials said. The City Council is slated to review how Morningside Recovery has responded to a 30-day warning period during which it accrued 20 violations against its zoning agreement with the city. The council could vote to pass an ordinance revoking Morningside's development agreement, which would leave its facilities out of compliance under the city's 2008 group-homes law, but the facility would still have options to stay in Newport Beach, said City Attorney David Hunt.

NEWPORT BEACH — With tools in hand, a group of local high school boys spent a day getting their hands dirty in someone else's yard. The boys gutted the place, pulling out everything from roots to trees to make way for new plants and flowers. But pulling out the trees that Sunday morning was no easy feat, so dads were on hand to help out, said Charlie Welsh, a freshman at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. "That's when you need the big, old football players," the 15-year-old said Thursday at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach.

NEWPORT BEACH — After years of fighting lawsuits over Newport Beach's regulations of rehabilitation homes, the city attorney expects to spend almost another $1 million defending the city's position this fiscal year. City Atty. David Hunt will ask the City Council on Tuesday to dip into its reserves to cover his office's outside counsel expenses, most of which have been used to defend against rehab-home operators. The private companies, which operate group homes for those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, allege that the city has discriminated against their clients.

More than 25 employees at Costa Mesa-based Experian recently donated their time and energy to help completely transform one of South Coast Children's Society’s residential group homes. The volunteers helped to trim trees, clean out ivy and foliage, and paint both the interior and exterior walls. South Coast’s four children's group homes give shelter, care and treatment to abused, neglected, and abandoned children between the ages of 10 and 18. Two additional homes serve struggling young people, age 18 to 24, who need short-term assistance and support while transitioning into young adulthood.

Newport Beach residents voiced frustrations Wednesday with drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in the city at a hearing to decide whether the sober living home the Kramer Center should be allowed to keep its doors open. “I am tired of these group home operators who take advantage of our amenities and beautiful beaches but do not observe city regulations,” said Newport Beach resident Barbara Roy at the hearing. The Kramer Center is a 12-bed, unlicensed treatment center that houses its clients in a duplex at 207 28th St. in Newport Beach.

The Newport Beach Planning Commission has voted to limit the number of recovering addicts the city’s largest rehabilitation home can house in Newport Beach. The commission voted 6-1 late Thursday to pass the agreement. Planning Commissioner Barry Eaton cast the dissenting vote on the commission’s recommendation for an agreement between the city and the rehabilitation home operator Sober Living by the Sea that would limit the number of beds the company can have in Newport Beach to 204 citywide, down from 238 in mid-2007.

Newport Beach residents voiced concerns Thursday night that a city agreement with Newport’s largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation home operator does not go far enough to protect homeowners from problems with crime, second-hand smoke, noise and traffic they associate with the recovery homes. “The nuances in this thing are going to kill us as a community,” said rehabilitation home over-concentration activist Bob Rush at a Newport Beach Planning Commission meeting Thursday.

Gary Monahan, Jim Righeimer and Nick Moss keep saying that we can’t create an open space park at Banning Ranch because it would be a violation of the owner’s property rights. This is nonsense. No one is proposing using eminent domain to take the property. It must be purchased from the owners — not, of course, at their own valuation, or Righeimer’s developer-friendly estimate, but for a fair appraised value. The money will be raised from a variety of public funds and private resources, and this is the goal of the Banning Ranch Conservancy.

Newport Beach Asst. City Manager Dave Kiff believes in the city’s settlement with group rehab home operator Sober Living by the Sea. He says it is such a great deal for the city that citizens might like it eventually. But at the same time, he understands why the community is frustrated and speaking out, and that the city still has some work to do — not just with group rehab homes, but also with the citizens. “The only thing that would please them is if we follow through,” Kiff said.

Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach dropped its $250-million lawsuit against Newport Beach Friday morning, according to court documents. The move nearly puts an end to all of the organization’s litigation after it has dropped lawsuits against almost all of the group rehab homes in Newport Beach, as well as a lawsuit that named both the city and the City Council. “We gave it a lot of thought and polled our supporters,” Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach leader Denys Oberman said.