Letter: Questions mark planned sober-living facility

Our single-family neighborhood on East Tujunga Avenue is well established with residents that include the elderly, adults, children, disabled and even recovering addicts, who have lived in our neighborhood for decades. We all know each other, socialize and help each other. Our neighborhood safety and welfare should not be preempted by a for-profit real estate investment corporation that wants to be the “fastest growing [Congregate Living Health Facilities] provider in the state of California.”

Should our neighborhood be put at risk on behalf of this corporation? We’re in the early stages of this, but it appears this outside corporation has more freedom to do what it wants with a single-family home than we do.

We’re told by the buyer that his use of this single-family home does not need to be disclosed, nor does he need our approval. We live on a hillside residential street with a blind curve, no sidewalks and limited street parking. So, it’s not our business to know how much traffic will be generated in our residential neighborhood by this commercial use; the number of work shifts and the staff that will be coming and going; we don’t need to know where they will park and the amount of visitor traffic that will be generated.

Will the residents arrive by emergency vehicle? How often will emergency vehicles be in our neighborhood? How will they turn around? Will as many as six families visit every day, every weekend? Where will they park? If it is a drug rehab facility and recidivism for addicts is high, will dealers be coming to our neighborhood?

This commercial use is not appropriate for our or any single-family residential neighborhood.

Sharon Springer

Burbank