Commission OKs Halfway House Plan in Costa Mesa

Despite appeals from more than a dozen speakers and petitions with nearly 700 signatures, the Costa Mesa Planning Commission late Monday night voted 3 to 2 to approve plans by developers to build a 24-bed halfway house in a residential neighborhood bordering Wilson Park.

The vote means that developers Donald and Dee Ward, both recovering alcoholics, can go ahead with plans to replace a six-bed halfway house their company owns at 380 W. Wilson St. with a two-story facility known as Harbor House that would offer round-the-clock treatment for men and women trying to kick their alcohol or drug habits.

An appeal to the City Council, where the issue ultimately will be decided, is expected.

The decision was a defeat for area homeowners, who are up-in-arms about the current facility and worry that the new building would attract drunks and homeless people to their College Park neighborhood, burdening police and posing a threat to children at play.

The intended site for the home is between Wilson Park and Harbor Shopping Center.

“I find it hard to believe they could agree to something but still agree that there will be a traffic problem,” area resident John Rollins said shortly after the decision, which came after nearly three hours of discussion.

“Just awful,” muttered Alice Beck after the vote. “We’re going to continue fighting.”

The vote came as a surprise to the Wards, who as father and son run Ward Investment Co., who expected the overwhelming opposition would influence the board.

“That was fantastic,” said a weary Don Ward after the vote. “They really opened their minds.”

In approving the conditional-use permit, which would expire after six months, commissioners said the project would be monitored carefully if the City Council ultimately approves the plan.

The current facility, said Commissioner C.C. Clarke, hasn’t “really created a strong detriment to the neighborhood. They’ve done an awful lot of good.”

Commissioner Michael Dunn, who along with Commissioner Brian Theriot voted against the proposal, said he favors the project, but like many homeowners, doesn’t want to see the venture at that location.

“I hate to be a Not-in-My-Back-Yard person, but I sympathize with these people,” Dunn said.

The polite but heated debate over the halfway house came as the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, packed with 80 residents, many of them opposed, considered the controversial project.

Opponents said the facility would cause an increase in traffic in the neighborhood, burdening police and posing a threat to children playing.

“Maybe I’ve gone around half-cocked,” Don Ward said during the debate. “But after three years of sobriety, this is all I could think about.”

Opponents also suggested that the halfway house was a profit-making venture incompatible with a residential neighborhood.

“This is clearly a commerical activity,” said Gordon Beck, a resident and opponent. “It is not the city’s responsibility to make sure the developer makes a huge profit in a residential neighborhood.”

Among those opposing the project were shopping center merchants.

“The center is taking a beating,” said Phil Brisack, president of the center’s merchants association. “The building will mean a loss of income for us.”

The Wards have said they want to give something back now that they have recovered from alcohol addiction. They maintain that the cost of the recovery home, from $2,000 to $4,000 a month, would keep vagrants out.

Plans for the home were submitted more than seven months ago, but they required Planning Commission approval for a conditional-use permit to allow multiple-family zoning in the neighborhood.

Opponents claimed that the proposed 36,000-square-foot facility, complete with a kitchen, courtyard and underground parking garage, would increase the number of homeless people who camp out at Wilson Park, which they said is known for late-night disturbances.

But the Wards, who kicked their habit at the Betty Ford Center in Palm Desert, said the project would be a role model for those with no where else to go.

“We want to help out,” Dee Ward said before Monday’s meeting. “We said, ‘Let’s take a stab at this.’ ”

The debate follows two controversial decisions in Costa Mesa that have hurt projects designed to help others.

Last month, the City Council, after emotional public hearings, voted not to renew the lease of Share Our Selves, a nonprofit group that has provided food, medical help and other necessities to the poor from the Rea Community Center, just 10 blocks from the proposed Harbor House site. Then last week, the council voted not to award city funds to any group serving illegal aliens except health clinics.

Dee Ward said the Harbor House project is expected to cost about $800,000. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring, he said.

A professional staff from Parkside Medical Services Corp. would oversee the operation, and about a quarter of the beds would be available to the public on a walk-in basis, Dee Ward said.

“The problem we’re addressing is that people go right back to drinking after a hospital stay,” he said before the meeting.

Others during testimony said the secondary treatment facility would do more good than harm.

“There really is a need for a facility like this,” said speaker Howard Hall, a member of the Orange County Sheriff’s Advisory Board. “If you can help one out 30, you’ve won a great war.”