Recovery homes on council’s plate again

Deirdre Newman

An effort to create a law regulating drug and alcohol recovery homes

to make them compatible with their residential neighborhoods has been

painstaking, but city officials are hoping to approve one on Tuesday.

The City Council will again look at proposed changes to the zoning

code Tuesday to appease residents who have complained that the homes

generate noise, litter and other problems.

The council approved new standards for the homes in July, but

legal counsel suggested changes that required another approval in

August. Now, another set of revisions is up for consideration.

This process is not surprising when the city tries tackling such a

complex issue for the first time, City Councilman Steve Bromberg

said.

“It’s been an educational process for all of us, especially when

we find out that for [homes with] six or less people, there’s

absolutely [no regulation] you can do,” Bromberg said.

State law says treatment centers housing up to six people can’t be

regulated. Those serving seven or more people are protected by

housing discrimination laws, so the city has only so much room to

maneuver.

In July, the council mandated that group homes serving seven or

more people in areas zoned for 1 1/2 and two units per acre and

multi-family residences will have to apply for special permits. The

Planning Commission will evaluate requests for these permits and

consider whether the facilities meet the zoning code for traffic and

other requirements.

In August, the council approved some changes to the new rules. The

most significant was allowing clients, described as transients

because of the frequent turnover in the homes, to live in them, said

former City Atty. Bob Burnham, now working as a consultant. This

change was made after recovery-home representatives said it would

harm their ability to treat clients if members who stayed a short

time weren’t allowed.

The council will on Tuesday consider additional changes to the law

passed in July. Chief among them is a change reflecting the city’s

realization that it can’t treat seven or more unrelated people living

in a house as roommates and members of a treatment home any

differently.

Gerry Marshall, president of Narconon Southern California, said

the rules still discriminate against group homes because of

restrictions against having assemblies.

“If they are not going to allow people to have an AA meeting to

address alcohol issues at the recovery home, they [shouldn’t] allow

regular residents to do the same,” Marshall said.

Linda Orozco, who along with some of her neighbors brought

complaints about the treatment homes to the council’s attention a

year ago, said the new rules don’t matter, because the city isn’t

even enforcing the rules currently on the books for group homes.

“No matter what changes they do, they are rearranging the deck

chairs on the Titanic,” Orozco said. “In 12 months, the city has

enforced not one single current zoning ordinance that would help us,

including the certificate of occupancy [for these homes].”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.