TUSTIN : Neighbors Hit Plan for Recovery Home

A group of residents this week presented the City Council with a petition protesting plans for a third drug abuse recovery home in their neighborhood.

The facility on Rosalind Drive, which is in the final stages of receiving its license, will be the third home in a one-square-block area to be operated by Recovery Homes of America Inc.

The approximately 50 people who signed the petition said the home would lower property values and create security and parking problems.

One of those to sign is Councilman Richard B. Edgar, who said: “We don’t object to one facility here. We just object to the concentration.”

The City Council directed city staff members to see whether the city could stop the home from opening.

“I don’t think this is a ‘not-in-my-back-yard’ issue,” Councilman Jim Potts said. “There’s a third one coming in, and you better work quick.”

Rita Westfield, Tustin assistant director of community development, said the homes can open in residential neighborhoods because the state classifies them as residential land use. There is no limit on the distance between homes, she said. The two existing homes are across an alley from each other.

The first two homes, which have been open for several years, have had no substantiated complaints against them, said Ronald Bevers, an alcohol and drug program analyst for the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs licensing and certification division.

He said such homes offer a place for people to live and eat together and to use their common challenge as a catalyst for recovery. He noted that such facilities do not house individuals who are not able to care for themselves.

Anne Barcus, administrator for the homes, said this is the first time she has heard complaints from neighbors about the homes.

“I think when Dr. (Michael) Stone first opened the business seven years ago, people got scared and had visions of drug dealers and addicts walking down the street. But it’s not like that,” she said. “We do not do detoxification here. The clients here come only after going through a detoxification procedure at a hospital.”

The two existing four-bedroom homes offer counseling and education to a maximum of six people in each house, Barcus said.

Barcus said complaints that the home will bring noise, security and parking problems are unfounded. Of the five women who will live there, none own cars, and no men are allowed to be in the house or even pick up the women for dates, she said.

“We’re trying to be good neighbors,” she said.

But the neighbors were not convinced.

“We recognize the need for these centers, but feel there should be a more equitable distribution throughout the neighboring cities and no concentration of this type,” said Gene Heileson, who presented the petition to the council.

“We’ve lived here for 29 years. We don’t want to have our neighborhood destroyed because of something we can’t control,” Edgar said.