The Meridian City Council heard from both city officials and group home advocates Tuesday as they weigh proposed changes to the city’s group home ordinance.

 

Currently, the city’s ordinance separates group housing into two distinct categories, Planning Manager Kevin Locke explained. Handicap housing is for people with disabilities and rehabilitation housing, such as homes for people in early recovery from substance abuse issues.

 

Under the current rules, no rehabilitation group housing is allowed in areas zoned R1 residential, but the city has struggled to enforce that as there is no requirement for owners of such facilities to inform the city of their intentions.

 

As part of the ordinance change, the city will begin requiring all group housing facilities to obtain a special use permit, which would alert city code enforcement officers to any facilities setting up in prohibited areas. Building Inspector Scott Sollie said addressing problems on the front end makes things easier for the city and for group home owners, who won’t have to face potentially relocating a newly opened business.

 

“When they come apply for a special use permit, which is required, then we can find out before they ever start operating if the zonings incorrect instead of finding out after the fact, after they’re open,” he said.

 

Debra Jackson, a program manager for several sober living facilities in Meridian, urged council members to tour some of the homes and see the benefit they bring to the community. Meridian has become a “Mecca” for recovery, with Alliance Hospital and other medical and mental health support nearby, and transitional housing is a much needed resource for those in early recovery, she said.

 

“If it were not for this type of organization, many people would not recover,” she said.

 

Jackson said the label of group home detracts from what sober living homes really do, which is provide peer support and accountability to those who need it.

 

“It is not a group home. It is a collection of people with the same purpose, which is to remain in recovery,” she said.

 

City Attorney Will Simmons said there are four rehabilitation group homes in R1 housing that the city is currently working to resolve. After trying to get information about the facilities through the organization’s attorneys, he said, the city went to environmental court and received cease and desist orders for the properties.

 

Action on those four properties came after the city’s code enforcement office received complaints, Community Development Director Craig Hitt said, and without residents calling in, the city would not know the group homes were there.

 

Councilwoman Ty Bell Lindsey said she understands why residents may not want group homes operating in their neighborhoods. More transparency and more information  about where the homes are operating and who is living there is needed, she said.

 

From the city’s standpoint, Locke said the issue at hand is a zoning problem. Rehabilitation group homes operate in other areas of the city just fine, he said, and some group homes intended for people with disabilities, which can go in R1 zoning, are also operating without issue.

 

Hitt said the changes to the ordinance are proposed to help the city implement and enforce the zoning regulations it already has on the books.

 

“If the council will approve these changes were recommending, then that will give us another tool to know where they are, when they’re operating, how they’re operating so that then we can make sure that they’re doing properly,” he said.

 

A public hearing on the proposed ordinance changes was held at 5:15 p.m. Nov. 19 to give residents an opportunity to weigh in. Other than Locke, who provided an overview of what the city was trying to do, no one spoke on either side of the issue.

 

Residents attending Tuesday’s work session to speak against group homes in residential areas were not allowed to address the council. Councilwoman Romande Walker, who serves as council president, said there was not enough time for everyone to be heard on the issue.