Family Shelter to Ask City to Renew Permit

The Eli Home for abused children and their mothers will ask the city’s Planning Commission today to renew its operating permit, which expires this week.

Officials of the shelter, which opened last April despite strong opposition from neighbors, also are requesting that the commission delete a one-year limit for the permit.

In a letter to the city, Eli Home board member Sonja L. Grewal said the shelter “has lived up to, and will continue to live up to, the spirit of and the conditions” of its permit.

“One year is not a long time,” said Lorri Galloway, Eli Home executive director. “We’ve proven that we’re not a hazard to the neighborhood, and we’ve improved the property. We just want to go about doing what we do, and that is protecting abused children and victims of domestic violence.”

But city planners have said they support keeping the one-year limit.

Mary R. McCloskey, deputy planning director, said it would be premature to approve an unlimited permit since the effectiveness of recent operating revisions has yet to be demonstrated.

Those revisions, approved by the Planning Commission in February, include allowing Eli Home clients to park their vehicles on shelter property and to have visitors.

The City Council will review the commission’s decision April 28.

Eli Home also has been asked to build a block wall on the northern portion of its property. Galloway said that project will begin soon.

The meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. in the council chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.

Information: (714) 765-5139.