Editor,
We moved to this beautiful town to send our kids to the wonderful schools and live in paradise. We bought our house on a gorgeous residential street and we chose not to live in a commercial zone. Through no fault of our own, we now live next door to a thriving and very, very busy business.
I very much want to see all the addicts get the services they need to get healthy, but to use a state law and loophole to be allowed to run commercial businesses in residential zones is ridiculous.
I do feel bad for the city being so threatened by the Newport Beach legal precedent that it paralyzes them from seeing how this is going to destroy the character of Laguna. While the state needs to modify their laws, Laguna needs to find some sensible regulation and zoning in the meantime.
Jessica Tuchinsky, Laguna Beach
Each new city council faced with angry residents asking why a for profit business, like residential rehab, is allowed to create an incredible nuisance and destroy the quiet enjoyment of those same resident’s home’s, points to the LAST city that tried to regulate those same rehabs.
Don’t let your city continue to tell you “Look what happened to NEWPORT, we’ll get SUED!” Because Newport’s council, 10 years ago, said “Look what happened to LONG BEACH, we’ll get SUED!”. The City of Orange was the first city to really get a good ordinance together, they were sued, they lost some but they gained more then they lost, as did Newport because all of those rehabs are now in poor Costa Mesa and they are just beginning their nightmare of regulation.
It’s a smoke screen to avoid making hard choices and changes to protect the citizens that elected them.
It will be a long, hard fight…and they’ll have no political will to do it but you either fight now or pay later and trust me, you don’t want the rehab profiteers to get a bigger foot hold in your community.
Thank you, Madmen,
The time to act is NOW, before we end up like San Clemente with 80+ rehab/detox businesses firmly rooted into our beautiful quiet neighborhoods. I can think of nothing that would change the feel and culture of our neighborhoods more than the uncontrolled growth of these facilities and all they bring with them – groups of people smoking in the streets/on the greenbelt, cars lined up and down the streets due to the transportation needs of residents, visitors and employees (ever notice how many people are on staff at these businesses(!), passenger vans (residents take field trips), delivery vans and the occasional emergency vehicle with lights flashing and sirens blaring. We cannot wait until they have a foothold in our community. We need to act now!