Costa Mesa planners tell recovery home 15 residents is too many
After more than four hours of testimony Monday night, the Costa Mesa Planning Commission unanimously denied a sober-living company’s request to house 15 people — nine more than permitted by the city — in a Mesa North recovery home.
Yellowstone Recovery’s home has a state license for 15 residents, but city officials say the higher number conflicts with Costa Mesa’s zoning code, which puts the limit at six, and that Yellowstone is no stranger to the rule.
Representatives from the group home on Boston Way say they are prepared to fight the directive.
Yellowstone had made a “reasonable accommodation” request to allow 15 men to stay in the home, though the commissioners contended that Yellowstone did not provide sufficient evidence that it needs or deserves the exemption to the city’s zoning law.
Commissioners noted that Yellowstone, which operates two other facilities in town, is nonetheless a good operator of homes for those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Yellowstone clients, alumni and staff testified about the center’s effectiveness and practice of giving back to the community.
“This is not a value judgment on Yellowstone,” said Commissioner Robert Dickson.
Planning Commission Chairman Jim Fitzpatrick, addressing Yellowstone’s group in the audience, added: “It’s not any way, shape or form personal to you.... I wish you the best of luck in your continued sobriety.”
But Yellowstone’s attorney, Steven Polin, indicated that his client would not be content with the well-wishes.
Commissioners, saying they had no desire to immediately evict the extra nine residents, asked him how long it would take for the home to transition back to the permitted number of beds.
Polin said the process would take years and that the commission’s decision “isn’t the end of the discussion.”
“Whatever you all do, there’s going to be a next step,” he said. “Yellowstone is not going to go quietly into the night.”
Polin contended during the meeting that City Hall’s targeting of the Boston Way home is discriminatory toward a disabled class of people protected by state and federal law.
“This isn’t about zoning,” he said. “This is about fair housing. This is about a discriminatory application of the city’s zoning law.”
He disputed the city’s cap, calling it a “myth.” City officials said the six-or-fewer rule was derived from state law and has been Costa Mesa’s standard since 2000.
City attorneys also noted that the six-bedroom, roughly 2,200-square-foot Boston Way home has a history of code-enforcement problems, including being found after an investigation in 2005 to have more than six beds. Though it complied at the behest of City Hall after that, the number of beds eventually grew back to 15.
Code enforcement Officer Mike Tucker said that since July 2011, officers have investigated eight reports about the home, the latest of which, earlier this year, alleged that someone jumped off the roof and into the backyard pool. This led to a city investigation, which uncovered the 15 beds and a dressing room that was being used, without permission, as an additional bedroom.
The company’s two other sober-living homes, on Bay Street and Fullerton Avenue, are known to be in compliance. Both are about half the size of the Boston Way house.
Polin, a recovering addict who once lived in a similar type of home, said having more men in the house helps with the recovery process by blunting loneliness and isolation.
The men live together in a family-type environment and are there for one another through the difficult times, he said.
“We want the residents who live in the Boston house, or anybody else who seeks to become sober, to go on to live a responsible, productive life,” Polin said.
Anna “Dr. Honey” Thames, the home’s operator since 2002, pleaded with the commission to not reduce the number of beds Costa Mesa provides to the recovering population, some of whom are “scholarship” recipients who cannot otherwise afford treatment.
“Getting rid of these men will not get rid of the problem,” she said. “It will get rid of the solution.”
Mesa North residents, including some on Boston Way, told the commissioners that Yellowstone’s facility and about five others in close proximity are “drastically” changing their neighborhood.
They reported seeing syringes left outside, trash in the gutters and parking problems.
Last month, Yellowstone sued the city over its new group-home ordinance, which would require sober-living homes to have special permits to operate in single-family neighborhoods. It also says the facilities must be at least 650 feet apart, a requirement that is expected to force the closure of some clustered homes.
Officials said the timing of Yellowstone’s lawsuit and Monday’s hearing were coincidental. Yellowstone first applied for the exemption in June. It was denied by a city administrator in August, and the appeal was delayed to December.
