Council to reconsider restrictions on group home

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Yellowstone Women’s First Step House will have a second

chance to convince the City Council that it should be permitted to treat

more recovering alcoholics to make the best use of the group home.

Earlier this month, the council granted Yellowstone a conditional-use

permit for just seven residents, although the group home had requested

one for 14 people.

The reduction came as a surprise to Yellowstone supporters, who said they

had been negotiating in good faith with the city to address their

neighbors’ concerns about noise and traffic.

“It had never been a question before,” said board member Petr Norman

Walker. “The number of occupants had never been an issue on the

conditions. It seemed underhanded. We spent a month working out the

conditions, never having the occupancy being one of them.”

The council decided to rehear Yellowstone’s case at its Monday meeting.

Yellowstone, a nonprofit organization run solely by volunteers, applied

for a permit to operate a “first step” home for 14 women just starting

their recovery. The women would stay for up to 10 days.

Residents who live near the house at 154 E. Bay Street raised concerns

about traffic, parking and noisy Sunday meetings. Yellowstone agreed to a

number of concessions, including restricting Sunday meetings to once a

month for two hours. It also agreed to stop publicizing open Alcoholics

Anonymous meetings, to limit street parking and to appoint a community

member to its board of directors.

After Yellowstone representatives agreed to those conditions, the public

hearing was closed and Councilwoman Libby Cowan proposed allowing just

seven residents at the home. Cowan said she still believes seven is an

appropriate number, but supported the rehearing because procedurally the

council did not give Yellowstone a chance to respond to the reduced

permit.

Yellowstone also applied for a rehearing because it challenged the

legality of the council’s limit. Yellowstone’s lawyer, Robert Break,

argued in a letter to the council that it should not even be subject to a

conditional-use permit because it is not a boarding house and does not

operate as a business.

“What we at Yellowstone are doing is within the boundaries of the law,

and to restrict our numbers goes against the law,” Walker said.

Mayor Gary Monahan said he supports a rehearing and would support an

increase in the number of residents allowed at the home. The way it

stands now, Yellowstone is allowed one resident for each of its seven

bedrooms.

“The law says you can’t treat them any different from any traditional

family group,” Monahan said. “You look at it from a reasonable

standpoint. I have three bedrooms in my house. What am I going to do,

ship my kids off someplace?”

Walker said since the number of residents was restricted to seven,

Yellowstone has had to turn numerous women away.

“We’re trying to be part of the solution,” Walker said. “I’m talking

about doing the right thing. This is a philanthropic deal here. Nobody’s

making any money.”