SOS Wins Approval to Move to New Site : Charity: The group’s supporters cheer the City Council’s 4-1 vote, which ended nearly three hours of emotional debate.

COSTA MESA —  The City Council on Monday approved a permit for the charity Share Our Selves to move to new quarters, ending months of uncertainty about the fate of one of Orange County’s largest charities.

After nearly three hours of emotional and often angry debate, the council voted 4 to 1--with Councilman Orville Amburgey dissenting--to approve a conditional use permit that allows the charity to move into an industrial building at 1550 Superior Ave.

“There is no perfect site for SOS, but I think this is an acceptable site,” Mayor Peter F. Buffa said. “We asked them to move out of a residential area and to find an industrial site for their operations; we can’t come back now and say, ‘We said an industrial site, but not this one.’ ”

The decision was cheered by SOS supporters who had feared that the charity might be forced to close its doors permanently after it was ordered evicted from its current home at the Rea Community Center.

“We are very pleased and grateful at the council’s action,” SOS founder and executive director Jean Forbath said.

However, the vote is not likely to end the controversy and opposition that has dogged the charity during the last several years.

Opponents of the move said they will monitor SOS’s activities at its new home and are prepared to mount the same sort of aggressive campaign that forced the charity from its old neighborhood.

Those who oppose SOS contend that the 20-year-old charity has simply grown too large for any residential or even commercial neighborhood, that its clientele loiter, increase litter and traffic and generally disrupt the environment.

The agency has grown to one of the largest charities in Orange County, serving 5,000 families--or 20,000 individuals--each month. The charity provides emergency food, clothing and financial assistance as well as medical and dental clinics.

Under intense community pressure from residents, the council voted in July to cancel SOS’s lease at the city-managed community center and give the charity six months to relocate.

Many charity officials feared that SOS would be forced to close when in January the council refused to grant the agency a three-month extension on its lease at the community center. However, the action generated an outpouring of support for the agency. Within days, more than $300,000 in donations had been pledged, making it possible for SOS to make a down payment on the $1.4-million, 12,000-square-foot building on Superior.

SOS directors said it will be several months before they can move to their new quarters.