No permit for rehab facility

Newport Coast Recovery has become the first drug and alcohol recovery home denied a use permit in Newport Beach under a controversial ordinance to regulate the homes the city adopted last year.

City officials also have recommended rejecting a use permit for the Kramer Center, a 12-bed, unlicensed treatment center that houses its clients in a duplex at 207 28th St. in Newport Beach.

Newport Beach could force Newport Coast Recovery, a 29-bed, men’s treatment center to close as early as next month, but the recovery home’s owner says he plans to appeal the ruling.

“We believe we do a lot of really good work there, and I’m troubled we were the first ones denied,” said Mike Newman, co-owner of Newport Coast Recovery.

An independent hearing officer for Newport on Thursday quietly approved a resolution to deny the home’s request to remain open. Newport Coast Recovery operates out of a seven-unit apartment building at 1216 W. Balboa Blvd.

The center’s neighbors have complained about noise and recovering drug addicts smoking cigarettes outside the building. Residents also were concerned about Newport Coast Recovery’s close proximity to Newport Elementary School, which is down the street from the home.

Newport Beach officials moved to deny the rehabilitation home a use permit in part because it is within walking distance of a bar and a market that sells alcohol.

Newport Coast Recovery and just about every recovery home on Balboa Peninsula is within walking distance from a business that sells alcohol, Newman said.

The home also has never received any complaints from Newport Elementary School, he said. The apartment complex has interior patios where its clients smoke, so they aren’t out on the street, he said.

“I think the threat of rehabs to the schools are quite overblown,” Newman said. “None of the kids even walk by our place. In this day and age, most people pick their kids up.”

Since December, city officials have slogged through use permit applications for the drug and alcohol recovery homes a few days a month in public hearings in the council chambers at City Hall. A number of West Newport Beach and Balboa Peninsula residents have become regular attendees, voicing concerns over what they see as problems with second-hand smoke, noise and litter they claim the rehabilitation homes cause.

“We are pleased with the hearing process and glad that it is moving forward,” Denys Oberman, a leader from the group Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach who has attended every meeting, said Thursday. “I think it has really empowered some of the residents to speak out.”

Furor erupted in the council chambers Thursday when an attorney for the Kramer Center asked that a hearing be delayed to deny the rehabilitation home a use permit. A few residents who had planned to vent their frustrations over the rehabilitation homes at the hearing were visibly upset and shouted objections that the hearing should go on as planned.

“I think the hearings are fair. The city has bent over backward to be very accommodating to the operators, but they are starting to take advantage of that,” said Larry Mathena, a Balboa Peninsula resident who was angered over the Kramer Center hearing delay.

City officials have recommended a permit for the Kramer Center be denied on the grounds the rehabilitation home is too close to businesses licensed to sell alcohol.

“I think a lot of the people in the city have a right to be concerned, but there has to be a place for recovering addicts to go,” said David Cooksey, an attorney for the Kramer Center. “You can’t send them to an institution, and the Kramer Center has made a practice of trying to be a good neighbor.”

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