Citizens reject rehab plan

Balboa Peninsula residents and rehabilitation home operators said they are unhappy with a proposed ordinance to curb the spread of rehab facilities in Newport Beach.

Anti-rehab home activists said they will file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the city if Newport Beach doesn’t do more to clamp down on houses where they say recovering addicts cause problems with noise, trash and traffic on the peninsula.

And the city’s largest rehab home operator said it will fight new rules it said are “discriminatory.”

“We’re trying to walk a fine line between protecting the residential character of the neighborhoods and discriminating against people the law deems handicapped,” Mayor Steve Rosansky said.

Newport Beach City Council and residents will discuss the ordinance at a study session at 4 p.m. today. The proposed new rules would wipe out changes the City Council made to rules in 2004 that rehab home activists say caused a proliferation of homes in the city. The 2004 rules made it possible for some rehabilitation homes to open in Newport Beach without a use permit, because the city categorized recovering addicts as disabled.

“They aren’t going as far as they need to go to resolve the problem, said Denys Oberman, a member of Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach. The group has lobbied hard for stricter rules on rehabilitation homes in Newport Beach, and spent about $150,000 on attorneys and planning consultants to pressure the city into doing more, Oberman said.

Residents would like to see a bigger buffer zone between rehab homes than what the new rules propose, Oberman said. Although the new rules would require rehab homes to obtain use permits, Oberman said it’s not enough to curb what residents feel is an over-concentration of homes on the peninsula.

“That’s what they were supposed to do in 2003 or 2004 but now it’s not enough. We feel encouraged, but we’re not there yet and the city needs to get there soon,” Oberman said. “The city needs to align with the interests of its constituents.”

The proposed new rules discriminate against recovering addicts and rehabilitation facilities, said John Peloquin, vice president of operations for CRC Health Group, which owns Sober Living by the Sea. The rehabilitation center is the largest in Newport Beach and houses about 85 clients in homes on Balboa Peninsula.

“The ordinance adversely affects us in a discriminatory way.” Peloquin said. “It’s discriminatory and we will not accept that. We will defend ourselves.”

Peloquin said he didn’t believe a new ordinance would ease tensions between rehab operators and residents on the peninsula. He called for peninsula residents and rehab operators to work toward a solution.

“We need more dialogue to work through these issues. I think the providers can come up with a solution to work with the city’s needs without an ordinance,” Peloquin said. “I’m not happy with it, nobody’s going to be happy with it. We’re all unhappy about an ordinance and the facts still remain and there’s still issues that need to be resolved.”

The council is poised to vote on the ordinance in January and a new ordinance could go into effect as early as February. The proposed rules could be revised to address the concerns of rehab home operators and residents before the council votes, Rosansky said.

 Requires rehab homes obtain conditional use permits

 Keeps most new homes from opening except in areas zoned for multi-family residential use.

 Mandates no secondhand cigarette smoke be detectable outside properties where homes operate.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.