High school for teens in drug and alcohol recovery gets Newport’s OK

A drug and alcohol treatment program for teenagers got thumbs up from the Newport Beach Planning Commission on Thursday night to operate a high school in an office building on Bayside Drive.

Newport Academy, a state-licensed program, operates two sober-living homes in Orange for clients ages 13 to 18. The group also ran a private high school on East 17th Street in Costa Mesa that operators decided recently to move to Newport Beach. The organization this month was allowed to move into the space at 1111 Bayside Drive for administrative purposes but was told it would need a permit before beginning classes.

After more than an hour of public discussion Thursday, the Planning Commission voted 5 to 0 to grant Newport Academy a conditional use permit that allows it to teach up to 12 students in a second-story office suite. Commissioners Peter Zak and Bradley Hillgren were absent. The commission’s decision is final unless it is appealed to the City Council.

Commissioner Erik Weigand noted that Newport Beach has had challenges and lawsuits stemming from group homes operating in residential neighborhoods. The commission and Newport Academy agreed to hold a public review of the school’s permit in a year.

“This is a very sensitive topic in Newport Beach,” Weigand said.

The high school, which will hold classes between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, will serve as a transition for teens between graduation from the treatment program and reintegration into the public school system, said Phil Greer, a lawyer representing the academy.

“The problems historically here have been about sober-living homes,” Greer said. “We are not that. These are students who graduated from a recovery program and are awarded with the opportunity to finish treatment.”

Several people who live near the site suggested the school would not be compatible with the surrounding businesses and homes. Greer assured residents that students would not be permitted to leave the building during lunch and would be picked up immediately after school by their parents or guardians.

However, Robert Bates, who lives on Balboa Island, said the area near his home will be an “attractive nuisance” to the students in the program.

“I don’t think it can pass muster in terms of physical suitability,” he said of the school’s location. “[The students] will come onto the island and you’ll find it difficult to monitor.”

Employees with Collins/Bay Island Securities, a company that does business in the office building, said they have already seen teens who they believe are part of the program hanging around outside the building, smoking and throwing trash in the parking lot. Greer said most of the teens they saw are not in the program.