Laguna Hills : Hearing Held on Homes Used for Health Care

More than 150 people turned out Thursday for a fact-finding hearing by Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), who plans to draft legislation to remedy what some south county residents complain is a growing problem--the proliferation of small board-and-care homes in residential areas.

Regulated solely by the state Department of Social Services, health-care providers need only to obtain a state license to care for six or fewer people in a private home. Local business licenses are not required, nor is city or county approval a prerequisite for opening such facilities. While most are senior care facilities, the home operations also are used for foster care, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and care homes for the disabled.

Residents of Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and other parts of south Orange County have complained that the care facilities have invaded their neighborhoods, reducing property values and bringing unwanted traffic congestion.

Timothy Neely, manager of the planning division for the county Environmental Management Agency, estimated that Aegean Hills in the Mission Viejo area alone contains some 35 residential-care operations.

Because state regulations supersede local zoning ordinances and conditional use permits are not required for the small operations, county officials don’t know the exact number of home-care facilities in Orange County, Neely said.

At the hearing at a Laguna Hills hotel, real estate agent Barbara Babin testified that a high number of such facilities in a single neighborhood tends to depress property values and makes it harder to sell homes.

“As a Realtor, when people come to me to buy a home, they are really looking to buy a way of life,” she said. “Clusters of these types of homes tend to change the neighborhood.”

Marilyn Ditty, director of San Clemente Seniors, a non-profit service agency,argued, however, that because there is a shortage of rest homes for the elderly in the south county, the home facilities are providing an important service.

“What you’re finding is that the marketplace is responding through the small-group homes,” she said. “Please don’t eliminate this level of care; we need residential care facilities.”