Drug rehab center asks to take in more clients

Lolita Harper

A request to increase the number of clients at an alcohol and drug

rehabilitation center known as the Dove Cottage is not flying with

area residents.

Homeowners in the Hall of Fame neighborhood have mobilized to

oppose any attempt to increase the allowable population from six to

nine.

Eleanor Manion has asked the Planning Commission to consider

allowing nine persons at the single-family house on Cork Lane, in

accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Perry

Valantine, assistant development services director for the city.

Neither Manion nor her attorney, Matthew Taylor, could be reached

for comment Wednesday.

Resident Kelly Smith has distributed fliers to her neighbors

warning them of Manion’s request and encouraging them to “get

involved and save our neighborhood.”

“We have just gotten rid of the halfway house [on the street],

which has been a major improvement to our neighborhood,” Smith’s

flier reads. “It has dramatically reduced the number of vehicles on

our street and myriad problems associated with that clientele.”

Valantine said the Dove Cottage has been the source of numerous

neighborhood complaints, including too many vehicles, people coming

and going at odd times of the night and “undesirable” objects being

found on neighboring properties.

He could not comment on the city’s recommendation on the subject

and said the staff report would be available in City Hall this

morning.

Group homes and sober-living homes in general have been a sore

spot for city officials in recent years.

State law severely limits the city’s regulation of group homes.

If a group home does not offer medical assistance or any type of

therapy and has six or fewer residents, it is exempt from local

control.

Costa Mesa had more alcohol and drug recovery facilities than

every city in the county but Santa Ana, which only had one more home

for each category, according to a 1999 city study.

The report also found that as many as 20 of the group homes

operating in residential neighborhoods had been violating city

ordinances.

The Dove Cottage was one of those 20, Valantine said. City

officials have been trying to enforce those ordinances for years.