Officials look at facilities

Two drug- and alcohol-recovery homes proposed in Corona del Mar will likely be the first test for Newport Beach’s moratorium on new group homes.

City officials adopted the moratorium in April to block new group homes from opening while they hash out regulations to govern the homes.

Residents, mainly from West Newport and the Balboa Peninsula, have complained some group homes are bad neighbors that contribute to litter secondhand smoke.

Group homes are a category that includes boarding houses and care facilities for the disabled, but the main source of discussion — and, according to residents, problems — in Newport has been drug- and alcohol-treatment homes and sober-living houses.

Tighter regulations proposed for group homes will be discussed by the city’s planning commission tonight, and it’s not clear how soon they’ll be approved. But the city is embarking on its first direct challenge by trying to block two drug- and alcohol-recovery homes from opening.

Miramar Health, a company that has operated an outpatient eating-disorder clinic in Newport Beach, is seeking to open two small drug-recovery homes side by side in the 400 block of Dahlia Avenue.

Cities have discretion over larger facilities, but state law requires that drug-recovery homes licensed by the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and housing six or fewer clients must be treated like any single-family home.

Miramar is applying for two homes to serve six or fewer people, according to city officials, who handled required fire inspections for the properties. In a letter to state officials last week, the city asked that Miramar’s two proposed facilities be considered one larger, integrated facility — something that can be blocked under the moratorium.

“This one is the same property owner, same management company, the application I saw includes the same schedule for both house,” Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said. “They’re all going to yoga at the same time, they’re all visiting the dietitian at the same time — it’s clearly being operated as one facility.”

Miramar Health owner Derik Brian referred questions to Dr. Lauren Gavshon, the company’s director of operations. A message left for Gavshon was not returned Wednesday.

Kiff said while Brian has said he’ll operate the homes separately, the city questions that.

Because of Miramar’s proposal, Corona del Mar residents have begun to raise concerns about group homes in their neighborhood. Laura Curran, who lives next door to where the homes are proposed, gave city officials a petition with about 60 signatures demanding stricter regulations to “end over-concentration and institutionalization of ‘group homes’ and residential treatment centers in coastal neighborhoods.”

“They should be managed as businesses, not residences, because that’s what they are,” Curran said.

A spokeswoman with the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs said no application from Miramar has been received. Kiff said if the state doesn’t agree that the two smaller homes should be considered one integrated facility, Newport will pursue its legal options.

“The city’s position is that this is in violation of the moratorium,” he said.

ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].