Bill limits rehab facilities

Under a new bill by state Sen. Tom Harman, coastal cities like Huntington Beach and Newport Beach could potentially gain more power to regulate or limit drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in the city.

It’s exactly what some residents have been asking for. They’ve been pressuring the city to address the proliferation of drug and alcohol recovery facilities that they say are causing problems in their neighborhoods.

City officials say state and federal laws severely limit how they can regulate the facilities, because recovering drug and alcohol addicts are classified as disabled and thus entitled to legal protections.

“We’re trying to give local authorities jurisdiction over these types of operations so that they can have the right to inspect, and the right to license and the right to do a number of things,” Harman said. “Local control is what we’re really trying to establish here.”

Harman’s office has heard a few concerns from Huntington Beach residents as well as people in Laguna Beach and Dana Point, but Newport Beach has taken the lead on the issue, Harman spokeswoman Kelly Garman said.

The existing laws are a tangled mess, and officials aren’t yet totally clear on what the new bill will do. Here are some of the bill’s provisions, which could change as it goes through the legislative process:

A key provision could allow the city to prohibit recovery “campuses” with multiple facilities clustered together, though it wouldn’t prevent a cluster of facilities run by different operators.

State law requires cities to treat facilities with six or fewer clients like any residential home. Under Harman’s bill, if a recovery home with six or fewer residents is within 300 feet of another home with the same owner or operator and they share services, both facilities would be subject to the rules for bigger facilities, which are more stringent.

State law would be changed to better define the “local need” cities are expected to serve. It’s a broad term, but the bill would narrow it down.

“What this bill clarifies is when they say ‘local need,’ they mean local need. They don’t mean recruiting people to come here,” said Cathy Wolcott, a contract attorney for Newport Beach.

If needed, cities could inspect drug and alcohol recovery facilities on the state’s behalf to make sure they’re complying with rules.

“We think Senator Harman and his staff have done a great job addressing a complex issue,” Wolcott said. “As I interpret the bill, it would address a number of the problems cities have been having with the state code.”

Last week, Harman held a town hall meeting in Newport Beach on recovery homes. Among the written comments submitted at the event, residents complained of cigarette butts thrown onto their property, van pick-ups at least 12 times daily, traffic and parking issues, and one resident said six rehab facilities are within 200 feet of the family’s home.

Residents also wrote questions that were discussed by a panel. The city attorney’s office plans to post answers on the city’s website to questions that weren’t addressed at the forum.

City officials said Laguna Niguel Assemblywoman Mimi Walters and Redlands Assemblyman Bill Emmerson also have introduced bills that cover drug and alcohol recovery facilities or group homes, but details on those bills were not immediately available.