Sober-living home permits hit snag in Costa Mesa

Even as two lawsuits promise to hamper Costa Mesa’s new permitting for sober-living homes, the system is experiencing delays in City Hall.

The system requires that recovery homes located in neighborhoods zoned for single-family residences apply for a special operating permit within 90 days or face closure proceedings.

Nov. 20 was to be the beginning of the 90-day period, but the start has been postponed, said Jerry Guarracino, an assistant director in the city’s Community Improvement Division.

“We want to make sure we’ve really vetted this application through all the other city departments,” he said. “We know we have a process that will work successfully once it goes out there.”

Guarracino said officials aren’t ready to announce a completion date, but interested parties, including sober-living operators, have been asking about the permits for the past month.

Twenty-four people have requested information from City Hall when it becomes available.

“We want to make sure we get [the application] right before it’s released,” Guarracino said.

Two federal lawsuits filed earlier this month could also affect the permits. The cases contend that Costa Mesa’s law is discriminatory because recovering drug and alcoholic addicts are, by state and federal law, considered a protected and disabled class.

Both lawsuits aim to seek a temporary restraining order, but no such requests have been filed, Guarracino said.

“We anticipate that they may file that shortly,” he said. “Depending on what the judge decides, we may or may not be moving forward, depending on the outcome of that. We’re continuing to move forward until the courts tell us otherwise.”

A primary goal of the permitting process, approved by the City Council in October, is to address an over-concentration of the recovery homes by mandating that they be at least 650 feet from one another. City officials anticipate that some clustered homes will be forced to cease operations because of the distance requirement. Permits will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

According to recent City Hall estimates, Costa Mesa contains 170 sober-living homes that have 1,238 beds. Of those, 61 homes — or 395 beds — are in single-family neighborhoods.

For years, the homes have been a source of frustration for residents, who contend that they change the character of a neighborhood by introducing a transient population with few ties to the community. Neighbors have also complained about wafting smoke, noise and parking problems.

To combat some of the negative effects, the permits would require that the homes maintain “good neighbor” policies and have live-in house managers.