Sober-living business loses bid for permit because of parking

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday voted to deny a request that a sober-living business be allowed to hold group counseling sessions at a Westside office building, saying the parking spaces don’t meet city requirements.

Solid Landings Behavioral Health, which provides treatment for recovering drug and alcohol addicts, has been using 657 W. 19th St., a 6,710-square-foot office building it leases from owner John Morehart, for the sessions for about a year without the proper permit.

The city requires that for the type of activity in the building, Solid Landings would need to provide 67 parking spaces. Solid Landings is believed to be the building’s only tenant.

Though the building has 29 parking spaces now, the reopening of an access gate would reduce the number to 24. Solid Landings claimed it needed only 20 spaces — 17 for employees and three spots for vans that bus in clients.

In April, a city zoning administrator granted the business permission for the group sessions, believing that 24 spaces was adequate and that traffic flow problems could be fixed by opening up car access from West 19th Street.

The City Council disagreed and voted 4 to 0 to deny Solid Landings’ request. Councilwoman Katrina Foley was absent.

The 43-space discrepancy wasn’t lost on Councilman Gary Monahan, who said: “I’m sorry, I don’t get it. It doesn’t work.”

That approval was appealed by Eastside resident Ann Parker, who brought the matter to the Planning Commission in June. The commissioners overturned the decision and denied Solid Landings’ request for group sessions because of the insufficient parking. Solid Landings then appealed that decision to the council.

In their denial, council members also cited recent code enforcement reports that Solid Landings employees were illegally parking in the nearby residential neighborhood instead of the office lot.

The council questioned why the company couldn’t ensure that its workers park in a lot that they claim has enough spaces.

Irvine attorney John Peterson, representing Solid Landings, couldn’t immediately answer the council’s questions.

“Why they chose not to, I don’t know,” he said. “They have been instructed to park on site.”

Peterson said management has been trying to fix the problem by hiring a security guard. He added that Solid Landings is trying to be a “good neighbor” but has been “stymied” in that effort since April, when the zoning administrator initially approved the parking request.

City staff noted that the building has been found to have unpermitted construction and no fire safety permits, among other problems.

Peterson said Solid Landings is not to blame for a “cross-pollination” of issues in Morehart’s building that were present when the company moved in.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer blamed Morehart for leasing the building without sufficient parking.

Solid Landings, Righeimer said, “got sold a bill of goods … and they got taken.”

Mayor Steve Mensinger asked about “flagging” Morehart’s other commercial buildings in Costa Mesa for problems.

Tuesday’s decision means Solid Landings can no longer host group sessions at the building, city officials said, although it can continue using the property for other purposes, like an administrative office.

Solid Landings and its subsidiaries operate as many as 30 group and sober-living homes throughout town. The company filed an unrelated lawsuit against the city to contest an ordinance that seeks to regulate group homes citywide. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in April.