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Costa Mesa Prevails
in Sober-Living
Operators Lawsuit
Challenging
City Regulations
Keller/Anderle LLP secured a
complete jury victory Friday for the City of Costa Mesa in a federal
lawsuit challenging its group home ordinance. The City's law, passed in
2014, was written to balance the rights of all citizens — including
residents of group homes — to live in and enjoy Costa Mesa's single family
neighborhoods.
Over the last six years,
Costa Mesa has seen explosive growth in the number of sober living homes in
the city's residential neighborhoods, with some cul-de-sacs or blocks
having as many as six of these homes on them. Some operators had been
packing 15 or more residents in single family homes to maximize profits.
The City designed its ordinance to protect both the residents in these
homes and others in the community by regulating unlicensed operators to
prevent overcrowding, establish minimum standards, and require that group
home operators and employees not have serious criminal convictions in the
recent past.
Two sober living home
operators and an industry trade group brought the suit in the Central
District of California in 2014, arguing that any regulation, no matter how
favorable to the disabled, was discriminatory. Other cities had lost
lawsuits challenging their own ordinances, settled them, or had been
intimidated into not passing ordinances at all. The
Costa Mesa City Council hired Keller/Anderle in March of this year,
when it was clear the City would need a complete victory at trial in order
to preserve the ability to enforce reasonable regulations on group home
operators.
After a four week trial
before the Honorable James Selna, the eight person jury deliberated for
half a day on Friday before returning a unanimous verdict on all counts for
the City of Costa Mesa. The jury agreed with the City that the law is not
discriminatory and does not violate the Fair Housing Act. Costa Mesa's law
will likely be a model for many Orange County cities that have been
awaiting the results of this case as they consider how to regulate this
industry.
Jennifer
Keller and Chase
Scolnick were co-lead counsel and Anand
Sambhwani was second chair, backed by Michael
Schachter and Nahal
Kazemi. "The Costa Mesa City Council stood tall and refused to be
intimidated by the Plaintiffs," Ms. Keller said. She added: "This
is a victory not just for the people of Costa Mesa and those in recovery
homes, but also for every city in California."
RELATED MEDIA ARTICLES:
Los
Angeles Times | Orange
County Register | Voice
of OC
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