Costa Mesa commission approves permit for sober living home despite neighbors’ concerns

The Costa Mesa Planning Commission found no grounds to deny a special use permit at their meeting Monday for a sober living home at the site of a former drug treatment facility located in a residential neighborhood.

People living near the property at 1601 Baker St. wrote letters and showed up Monday to raise alarm over possible overcrowding and safety. Some claimed that it was already operating as an unlicensed sober living home, and that people staying there had broken into neighborhood properties.

“The house has not been operating as a sober living facility,” Mary Wilcox, a representative for StepHouse Recovery, the nonprofit applying to run the home, said. “It was at one time a treatment facility, but in the interim it was rented to a family. It is now being rented to several tenants.“

The current residents are not affiliated with any recovery program. It’s unclear if any of them may have been involved in alleged break-ins, Wilcox said.

Wilcox added that when the property begins operating as a sober living house, the people who stay there will be closely vetted by the Orange County Health Care Agency. StepHouse will be notified of potential residents’ criminal records and can deny their applications. And any who violate a good neighbor policy or house rules can be removed from the home.

“If we have someone who violates those rules we can discharge them, and we can remove them from the residence,” Wilcox said. “As a [private] tenant, if you have someone who’s acting a little nuts you don’t really have that ability to easily remove someone.”

Kristin Auslander told commissioners she lives next to the proposed sober living home. She noted that there has been a record of police and paramedic visits at other StepHouse homes, and said she’s not comfortable having her children playing nearby.

“[Sober living residents] get discharged after something happens,” Auslander said. “I don’t want something to happen in my backyard with my family.”

Wilcox acknowledged that paramedics have been summoned to deal with medical emergencies and police have been called to disturbances at other sober living homes. But she said that direct complaints from neighbors are rare.

“Those incidences are not on the regular,” Wilcox said. “I would also like to recognize the fact that these individuals are not criminals. They are very much like you and me… They are taking a little time out to go to treatment, but they are normal citizens like you and I are.”

She added that StepHouse does not allow people listed as sex offenders to stay at their properties.

Other residents raised issue with the fact that the sober living home would be next door to a care facility for abused and neglected children and teens. Local ordinances do prevent sober living homes from being within 650 feet of each other, but no such limitation exists between sober living homes and different types of state-licensed facilities.

Commissioners were sympathetic to the concerns of residents, but the development of state-licensed sober living homes is exempt from most local regulation. So, they were obligated to approve the permit as long as the home adheres to zoning codes and operational standards associated with such establishments. They approved a special use permit for the home in a 7-0 vote.

The owner of the home and chief executive of StepHouse, George Vilagut, acknowledged that past issues with sober living homes led Costa Mesa to include guidelines in their municipal code addressing their management. He said he’s personally invested in ensuring that his organization acts as a good neighbor in the communities where it is present.

“There are bad actors, no question,” Vilagut said. “I’m here to say we that we run a clean, tight ship.”