Pleasant Hill council to hear rehab center appeals

PLEASANT HILL — A long-simmering dispute over a proposed alcohol and drug rehabilitation center may reach the boiling point Monday when the City Council hears competing appeals of a permit for the project.

While opponents have backed off predictions that the center would draw thugs and drug dealers to the neighborhood, they have launched a multipronged attack, including saying that city staffers — fearing a discrimination lawsuit — were biased in favor of the project. The property owner has maintained that neighbors have taken their strategy and arguments straight from the "not in my backyard" playbook.

Both sides appealed the Planning Commission's 4-to-2 decision to approve the use permit. The hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Gregory Lane.

Michael Jordan wants to open St. Theresa's Retreat, a 20-bed residential treatment center for women in recovery from drug or alcohol dependency, in a former convent at 2059 Pleasant Hill Road. He believes the 55 conditions attached to the use permit are excessive and grounded in stereotypes associated with substance abusers, rather than in facts.

Jordan is asking the council to drop requirements for an 8-foot perimeter fence and a sound wall. He also wants to hold weekly family visitations on-site instead of at a neighboring church, as he originally had planned.

"I'm hoping the council will grant the conditional use permit with these three modifications,"

"I'm going along with so many things that really there is not evidence for the need, but to assure the City Council and the community we are willing to make these extraordinary concessions."

Opponents, who say no more than 12 nuns at a time lived at the former convent, believe 20 residents plus employees would be too much in the single-family neighborhood. They also say that St. Theresa's will not provide adequate parking and will increase noise and traffic in the neighborhood.

In a 46-page appeal filed last month, they argue that St. Theresa's is "institutional" and thus violates the city's general plan mandate to preserve the character of residential neighborhoods.

If the council does not toss out the permit, "the only acceptable outcome... at this point, is to send it back for additional study," said Dorothy Englund, vice president of the Safe Neighborhoods Alliance Program, neighbors who oppose the rehab center.

"We just really want the council to understand the precedent that they're setting" with respect to high-intensity land uses in residential neighborhoods, she said.

The prospective clients are considered disabled under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, meaning Pleasant Hill may reject the project only if it creates a 'significant risk to the health and safety' of the neighborhood.

The use permit includes 55 conditions, including phasing in the number of residents from 12 to 20, restricting the hours of outside activities and deliveries, and requiring third-party client screening. The conditions also set several layers of city oversight.

The council members have several options — deny the appeals, overturn the Planning Commission's decision, approve the use permit without changes, or approve the permit with changes.

In a detailed response to the residents' appeal, city staffers argue the project does not require a general plan amendment or violate the zoning ordinance or Pleasant Hill land use policies. The residents argue that St. Theresa's should not be approved with 20 residents because Jordan has not demonstrated demand for additional residential drug and alcohol treatment for women in Contra Costa County. According to city staffers demand has no bearing on the use permit approval process.

The staff opposes granting Jordan's request to eliminate the perimeter fence and sound wall.

Alliance members have questioned the way the city handled approval of the project. They say a building permit for a 600-square-foot addition to the former convent issued in December 2007 should have been considered in conjunction with the use permit.

"Staff basically gave this applicant and this project the 'green light' at least one year before the applicant completed his application for a use permit, if not before," the appeal states.

The staff report says that the city has been fair and impartial and states that the building permit "did not influence or predetermine the outcome of (Jordan's) use permit application."

Lisa P. White covers Martinez and Pleasant Hill. Reach her at 925-943-8011.