Planners Approve SOS Move in 3-2 Vote : Charity: But controversy continued to dog the agency as the Chamber of Commerce said the proposed relocation could be harmful to the industrial area.

After nearly three hours of debate, the Planning Commission voted 3 to 2 Monday to approve a permit that would allow the controversial charity Share Our Selves to move into new quarters.

It will now be up to the City Council to decide whether the charity will be permitted to relocate to a vacant, 12,000-square-foot building at 1550 Superior Ave. in a southwest section of town dotted with commercial and light industrial businesses. The council is expected to take up the issue at its meeting next Monday.

SOS directors are hoping that the move away from residential neighborhoods will quiet complaints about the large numbers of homeless people who use the agency.

But the charity continues to be dogged by controversy and opposition. In the latest salvo fired in what is beginning to look like an endless war, the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the Planning Commission opposing the move on the ground that it would be detrimental to area businesses.

“We were notified by a number of area businesses who wanted us to take a position against the move,” said chamber president Russell G. Gilbert. “SOS is a worthwhile organization . . . but if you hurt business, you increase the ranks of poor and unemployed.”

The action by the chamber’s board of directors sparked an internal dispute, with at least one member, former chamber president Arthur G. Kidman, denouncing the vote.

“I think it was an expedient kind of action,” said Kidman, a Costa Mesa attorney and longtime SOS supporter. “The chamber is struggling to maintain and boost its membership, and there is a feeling it needs to be up front in taking some positions. It was a self-serving attempt to boost membership.”

In a letter to Gilbert, Kidman argued that the chamber should not merely represent the “narrow money interests of business,” pointing out that SOS founder and executive director Jean Forbath has been honored as the chamber’s Woman of the Year.

But business owners and residents of Anchor Trailer Port, near the proposed site, said they agreed with the chamber’s position and feared the impact of SOS’s move.

“Why are they moving? Because people object to what they are doing to their (neighborhood) environment,” Bob Lin, manager of the mobile home park, said before the Planning Commission meeting. “If they come to our neighborhood, we will have to suffer.”

Lin said mobile home owners fear that those served by SOS will increase crime, litter and traffic in the area.

In addition, a group from Newport Beach also appeared at Monday night’s meeting, bearing a petition containing the signatures of 90 or so residents Park Lido condominiums, which is several blocks from the charity’s proposed new home. The residents claim that they, too, will suffer from the SOS move.

The 21-year-old charity agency provides food, clothing, medical and financial assistance to about 20,000 people per month.

The City Council voted to oust SOS from its longtime home at the Rea Community Center on Hamilton Street after nearby residents complained about the actions of some of those served by SOS.

The controversy generated an outpouring of moral and financial support for the charity, allowing it to sign a purchase agreement for the building on Superior Avenue.