City will look at rehab rules

June Casagrande

In response to complaints from neighbors of a peninsula drug- and

alcohol-recovery home, council members will hold a study session on

rehabs and the laws that govern them.

City Attorney Bob Burnham will give a report on fair housing laws

that may govern such group homes and shed light on lingering

questions about exactly what powers the city has to regulate

residential treatment facilities.

“We’ll be looking at two things,” Burnham said. “There will be an

overview of the federal law that’s applicable to local regulation of

group homes and then we’ll probably chat a little about some possible

ordinance amendments that the council may or may not want to

consider.”

Specifically, the discussion will consider when federal housing

laws override city-zoning laws and when use permits are required.

“We need to listen to everybody,” said Mayor Tod Ridgeway, whose

district includes the Narconon recovery home that has been the target

of neighbors’ complaints in recent months. “To the extent the

complaints are legitimate, we’ll look at them.”

Ridgeway said that the city needs to examine occupancy rules,

which govern how many people can live in properties of varying types

and sizes, as a way to control effects of businesses near residential

areas.

Neighbors have lobbied the City Council during meetings in recent

months to report noise and litter such as cigarette butts from the

Narconon facility. Linda Orozco, who has led residents in their

efforts to fix the alleged problems, had asked the city to look into

the law, prompting the study session.

“What we would like to see is for all these rehabs in our city to

cease and desist until they’ve gone through the Planning Commission

for a permit and conduct an environmental report that shows the full

impact to neighbors,” Orozco said.

Jerry Marshall, president of Narconon Southern California, said he

believes the facility is a good neighbor and that it has already

taken steps to address neighbors’ complaints. Six-day-a-week trash

pickup has been reduced to three days a week. Staff at the facility

have been instructed to work harder to assure that cigarette butts

and other trash don’t litter the property.

“We’re trying to be good neighbors and we have been for eight

years,” Marshall said. “We’re working even harder now.”

Orozoco said conditions have not improved.

Narconon is an international, nonprofit drug- and

alcohol-treatment program based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard

founder of the Church of Scientology.