Rehab terms panned

Newport Beach residents voiced concerns Thursday night that a city agreement with Newport’s largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation home operator does not go far enough to protect homeowners from problems with crime, second-hand smoke, noise and traffic they associate with the recovery homes.

“The nuances in this thing are going to kill us as a community,” said rehabilitation home over-concentration activist Bob Rush at a Newport Beach Planning Commission meeting Thursday. “There’s a lot of nuances that in my opinion equate to deception.”

The Planning Commission was expected to vote late Thursday on whether to limit the number of recovering addicts the rehabilitation home operator Sober Living by the Sea can house in Newport.

The limits, outlined in a settlement agreement between Sober Living by the Sea and Newport Beach, also would bar the company from operating within 1,000 feet from elementary schools and some day-care facilities.

Some Newport residents believe that Sober Living by the Sea should have been forced to go through a public hearing process to obtain use permits for each of its homes instead of entering into an agreement with the city.

West Newport resident Cindy Koller said a steady stream of rehabilitation home clients walk or bike past her home each day, “talking loud, smoking and flicking cigarette butts on the street.”

“My biggest concern is the vans daily speed up and down our streets and have so for years,” Koller said.

She asked that the agreement include a clause that would bar Sober Living by the Sea’s vans, used to transport recovering addicts, from driving past her home.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sober Living by the Sea would not be able to house or treat clients who are on parole.

The company would be able to operate out of only one building per block in the city, and it would have to limit where its clients can smoke cigarettes.

The agreement would limit the number of beds Sober Living by the Sea can have in Newport Beach to 204 citywide, down from 238 in mid-2007, said Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

A key part of the deal would allow the city to control the number of smaller, state- licensed rehabilitation homes. State law bars cities from regulating these homes unless an operator voluntarily agrees.

“This is something we could not do with the use permit process,” Kiff said. “No other city in the state has this protection.”

Sober Living by the Sea also would have to limit the number of beds it has on Balboa Peninsula, the area of the city with the highest concentration of rehabilitation homes, to 156.

The agreement will head next to the Newport Beach City Council for final approval. The council is likely to take up the issue in January or February, Kiff said.

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