sober house - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T20:59:33Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/sober+houseGulf Stream: Town rushes sober-house rules to meet federal disability requirementshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-town-rushes-sober-house-rules-to-meet-federal-disabil2014-07-02T17:45:51.000Z2014-07-02T17:45:51.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong><br /> <br /> Gulf Stream commissioners moved with unusual speed to pass unanimously an emergency ordinance that brings the town’s code in line with federal disability housing requirements.<br /> The new law took effect immediately, without the typical second reading and the typical second commission vote for approval, according to Town Clerk Rita Taylor.<br /> Why the hurry and what’s the emergency? Sober houses. And Martin O’Boyle.<br /> A week before the June 13 commission meeting, O’Boyle sent a letter to the town announcing he was moving forward with a plan to open sober houses in Gulf Stream.<br /> “I have made a decision to form a company to acquire houses in Gulf Stream for use as Sober Houses,” O’Boyle said in a letter to Town Manager William Thrasher. “I intend to begin the implementation of this program forthwith.”<br /> O’Boyle, a longtime resident and unsuccessful candidate for commissioner who has filed numerous lawsuits against the town over a wide range of issues, ended the letter with an admonishment, if not a warning: “And, I remind you, that it is our intention to move forward in a rapid fashion. Consequently, we would intend to hold the Town of Gulf Stream accountable for any damages we incurred as a result of purposeful delays.”<br /> Mayor Scott Morgan declined to draw a connection between the hastily passed ordinance and O’Boyle’s announcement.<br /> “We thought we had to act in an expedited manner because this issue has been coming up here and in other communities,” Morgan said. “The recent case in Boca Raton was also a factor.”<br /> The Boca Raton case dates back to 2006, and Gulf Stream Town Attorney John Randolph said he consulted with the city’s attorneys and used the ordinance that ultimately came out of the court ruling as a model for the town’s new law.<br /> U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled that a Boca Raton ordinance banning sober houses from residential neighborhoods was discriminatory and violated the federal Fair Housing Act. Plaintiffs in the case hailed the decision as a victory for recovering addicts, who deserved protection under federal law, including also the Americans with Disabilities Act, as handicapped and disabled people.<br /> Boca Raton City Council members had passed an ordinance in 2002 that would have required sober houses to move into areas zoned for medical centers and hotels, before lawsuits forced the city to back off. <br />Sober houses are homes where people in recovery for drug or alcohol problems live while they are receiving treatment at other sites. No treatment takes place in sober houses.<br /> Like the Boca ordinance, the Gulf Stream law allows “disabled individuals (or qualifying entities) to request reasonable accommodations” that could include exceptions or modifications of the town’s housing codes.<br /> The ordinance has a provision that could allow the town to request medical information from sober house residents to document their conditions. <br />The law says the town should “treat such medical information as confidential information of the disabled individual.”<br /> O’Boyle urged the commission to delay action on the ordinance and suggested that requiring the disclosure of medical records might violate HIPPA rules — the American Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 that sets standards for patients’ privacy.<br /> O’Boyle asked Randolph whether the town would request medical records or require them. Randolph said the language in the Boca law had been approved by Middlebrooks himself.<br /> “This is an ordinance that was approved by a judge in the Southern District Court of Florida,” he said. “I felt it was an appropriate ordinance on that basis to present to the commission.”<br /> To underscore the implementation of the new rules, commissoners took another uncommon step: They held a special meeting on July 1, with the sole purpose of voting for the ordinance a second time. It was re-adopted unanimously and the meeting adjourned in five minutes.</p></div>Lantana: Town won’t challenge sober house semanticshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-town-won-t-challenge-sober-house-semantics2013-07-03T18:30:00.000Z2013-07-03T18:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br /> As in many other municipalities, sober houses have been infiltrating Lantana neighborhoods, often to the chagrin of neighbors. In an effort to regulate sober houses — group homes (but not treatment facilities) for recovering addicts — the Town Council, at its June 24 meeting, considered changing the definition of “family.”<br /> But after discussion, the council decided to take no action on the matter.<br /> The measure probably would have been little, if any, help in discouraging the onslaught of sober houses, Town Attorney Max Lohman said, adding that, at best, it would be a sideways move.<br /> “Federal law trumps state law and trumps town law,” he said. “This area is best left alone because it is an indefensible position. Sober houses are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and courts have routinely struck down regulations in other municipalities as discriminatory.”<br /> Council members acknowledged that an effort to redefine “family” was not likely to help.<br /> “Other cities who tried to fight this (in court) have lost their britches,” said Council Member Lynn Moorhouse. “We should take the advice of our attorney.”<br /> State Sen. Jeff Clemens, who happened to be at the meeting to give a legislative update, weighed in on the issue. He said he was working on more oversight for sober houses and had introduced a bill to require that the Department of Children and Families license sober houses and prevent them from being within 1,000 feet of each other. But his bill never made it out of committee.<br /> Clemens said he was able to get state money to finance a study on how many sober houses there are in Florida.<br /> “Hopefully, we’ll know how many there are,” he said. “We need to get a handle on this.”<br /> At the town’s May meeting, property owners who live near the proposed sober house at 118 N. Oak Ave. (near the Ocean Avenue shopping district) turned out to oppose the sober house. They delivered a petition with 300 signatures of residents who worried about an increase in crime and a downturn in property values if recovering addicts moved into the neighborhood. The discussion on what defines “family” came about as a result of that conversation.<br /> <strong>In other action, the Town Council:</strong><br /> • Held its first budget workshop on June 10 and scheduled the next one for 5:30 p.m. July 22. The town has kept the same tax rate — $3.24 per $1,000 of assessed value — for the past 11 years.<br /> • Delayed until November a decision on whether to allow the Lantana Historical Society a chance to turn a dilapidated, town-owned triplex at 111-115 Prospect Road into a museum. The house needs extensive renovations, including a new roof, electrical wiring, doors and windows. <br /> Council members expressed concerns that the Historical Society may not be able to generate the necessary money to undertake and maintain the project. </p></div>Lantana: Protest of sober house rebuffed by town councilhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-protest-of-sober-house-rebuffed-by-town-council2013-05-02T14:58:23.000Z2013-05-02T14:58:23.000ZScott Simmonshttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ScottSimmons<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /><br /> Property owners turned out en masse at the April 8 Town Council meeting to oppose a proposed sober house at 118 N. Oak Ave., around the corner from the Ocean Avenue shopping district.<br /> Phyllis Small, who owns property on the avenue, brought a petition with 300 names on it. They objected to using the multi-residence gated building for a sober house for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.<br /> Permitting a sober house so close to a drug store that sells alcohol, and bars and restaurants that sell spirits, would be “a disaster,” Small said. “It does not seem logical where people are so tempted when they are attempting rehabilitation.”<br /> She said people in the neighborhood “feared for their safety.”<br /> But the council could offer little consolation.<br /> “We cannot control sober homes,” Mayor Dave Stewart said, “because people are protected under federal law. Addicts are considered protected under federal law.”<br /> The town’s attorney, R. Max Lohman, agreed.<br /> “Once you’re in a protected class, there’s very little you can do,” he said. “I know it can be difficult. Delray Beach has wrestled with this and continually lost on merits (when taking the issue to court).”<br /> “We don’t get to pick and choose the parts of the Constitution we like,” Lohman said. “There’s not a legally sufficient solution.”<br /> Small said she still wished there were something that could be done.<br /> “The perception of Lantana is that you can do anything here,” she said. “At least in Delray they fought it.”<br /> She said that avenue property owners were already suffering with the bridge being closed (until November) and that having a sober house would cause property values to plummet.<br /> Alan Ross, who has a shop on Ocean Avenue, criticized the town for not alerting them to news of the sober house.<br /> “We found out two weeks ago at Moe’s gas station,” Ross said. <br /> Stewart said the town was not approached (about the sober house coming in) and could not stop it. <br /> “We have more right to control raucous noise than sober houses,” he said.</p></div>Delray Beach/Boca Raton: State intervention sought in regulation of sober houseshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-boca-raton-state-intervention-sought-in-regulation-o2012-11-29T16:03:39.000Z2012-11-29T16:03:39.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /><br /> Delray Beach is asking the state to regulate sober houses after the city failed in its own effort to prevent the Caron Foundation from opening two coastal houses for recovering addicts. <br /> Delray Beach and Boca Raton will share the cost for a Tallahassee lobbyist to persuade legislators that the state Department of Families and Children should license and regulate sober houses.<br /> “Let’s start this from another angle,” Delray Beach Vice Mayor Tom Carney said of the issue for coastal residents in the city’s upcoming mayoral campaign.<br /> Carney faces another coastal resident, Cary Glickstein, in the March 12 election for mayor. <br /> “Tom as a commissioner failed to get any results,” Glickstein said. “Now, as a candidate for mayor, this is his priority all of a sudden.”<br /> The City Commission at Carney’s urging agreed to pay $15,000 to hire Joe McCann, senior vice president of the Tallahassee lobbying firm Ballard Partners, to be the city lobbyist. Firm owner Brian Ballard is the brother of former County Commissioner Mary McCarty.<br /> McCann will meet with legislative committee leaders before the April legislative session to gather support for state licensing and regulation of sober houses. <br /> “The real issue is the proliferation of sober houses that don’t give you the treatment that they promise,” Carney said. “Government’s role is to make sure businesses in the community do what they say they’re going to do.”<br /> The Florida League of Cities, also concerned about sober houses in residential neighborhoods, has proposed less costly legislation because it doubts the legislature will pay for DCF enforcement.<br /> “The law won’t be changed just for Delray and Boca,” Glickstein said. “The more economical way is to get other cities on the same page.”<br /> Glickstein became a figure in the Caron Foundation’s lawsuit against the city when a federal judge said his outspoken comments showed Delray Beach was discriminating against recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. Glickstein, the planning and zoning board chairman at the time, had called sober houses a “cancer” on Delray Beach.<br /> “The key is not to be the loudest, but rather to be the most effective,” Carney said, as the mayoral campaign heats up with sober houses still a concern for coastal residents.<br /> Federal housing laws prevent discrimination against recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. <br />Both Glickstein and Caron Foundation attorney Jim Green cautioned Delray Beach that federal courts could overturn a state law to regulate sober houses, just as a federal judge blocked Delray Beach ’s attempt to do so. <br /> “The fact that Delray Beach is attempting to spearhead state legislation with its history of discrimination against people in recovery would be viewed with suspicion by the federal courts,” Green said. </p></div>Boca Raton: Brown honored for Home Rule advocacyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-brown-honored-for-home-rule-advocacy2012-08-02T14:17:16.000Z2012-08-02T14:17:16.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /> <br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960401261,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960401261,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960401261?profile=original" /></a>Deputy Boca Raton Manager George Brown is a “Home Rule Hero” to cities across the county and across the state for helping derail a proposed Florida law on sober houses.<br />Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the county League of Cities, gave Brown a plaque on behalf of the state league at the City Council’s July 10 meeting. <br />He said he learned how hard Brown works during this year’s legislative session.<br /> “I would call him and he says, ‘Oh, I’m at a health fair,’ and I would call him somewhere else and he would say, ‘Oh, I’m at the library working on this.’ … He just seemed to do every job in the world,” Radcliffe said.<br /> The plaque cites Brown’s “outstanding legislative advocacy in 2012 in the fight for municipal home rule.”<br /> “As most of you know, it [home rule] is a passion of mine,” Brown said. “Each city is different. Each city has its own unique character that derives from its home rule actions.”<br /> The exercise of home rule powers “has made Boca Raton a beautiful, successful city, and it sustains us as a premier community,” Brown said.<br /> Mayor Susan Whelchel said everyone on the dais considered every day a George Brown Day. “We’re thrilled to be here with you while you receive this award,” she said.<br /> A bill that would have “exempted certain licensed facilities in a way that negated the required adherence to local occupancy standards” died in committee last spring, the state league notes in its legislative final report.<br /> Delray Beach also opposed the sober house bill.<br /> Radcliffe said the state league and even the county league had not taken a stand on the bill until Brown became involved. “I saw it firsthand,” Radcliffe said. “The man worked some wonders.”</p></div>Delray settles: Caron keeps beachside sober houseshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-city-settles-caron-keeps-beachside-sober-houses2012-08-02T14:00:00.000Z2012-08-02T14:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p></p>
<hr class="messageHeaderDivider colorK2" noshade="noshade" /><div id="cg_msg_content"><span id="lw_beacon_1344365377406"></span><div style="font-family:arial;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;"><em> CORRECTION: An article about a Delray Beach legal settlement with the <span style="border-bottom:2px dotted #366388;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1344364237_0">Caron Foundation</span> incorrectly stated the number of times that Caron can rent a bedroom at its two sober houses. The settlement allows Caron six rentals per year.</em></div>
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<p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /> <br /> Delray Beach has given the Caron Foundation approval to operate two high-end sober houses near the ocean, ending a costly lawsuit that city commissioners feared they would lose.<br /> The July 17 settlement came after a federal judge said it was likely that Caron could prove at trial that the city discriminated against recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.<br /> “It is foreboding what’s going to happen at trial,” Matthew Mandel, the outside attorney hired to defend the lawsuit, told commissioners.<br /> “The judge is trying to send us a message to say how he will rule if there’s a trial,” Mandel said. “I believe the city has no choice but to settle.”<br /> City Attorney Brian Shutt estimated the city would owe at least $950,000 in damages and fees if it lost at trial. Shutt also urged commissioners to settle.<br /> “We have run into an immovable object,” Mayor Woodie McDuffie concluded. “To pursue this further would be fiscally unconscionable.<br /> “I see millions of dollars in damages,” McDuffie said before the unanimous vote to settle. “A city of our size cannot stand the loss of revenue of the magnitude this could reach.”<br /> The settlement allows Caron to house eight recovery patients at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. and six patients at 1232 Seaspray Ave.<br /> “We’ve established an absolute right to be there,” Caron executive vice president Andrew Rothermel said after the city gave up its fight.<br /> Caron’s “Ocean Drive” program provides upscale housing and amenities for clients who pay $55,000 a month to live in the seaside houses while they undergo treatment at Caron’s facilities in Boca Raton.<br /> Caron promises not to seek any additional sober houses in the city. The nonprofit treatment provider got the city’s permission to relocate its Seaspray Avenue sober house if it finds a more peaceful location. <br /> “That house is in a neighborhood that’s so up in arms,” Rothermel said. “We might move if we could find a house with a greater degree of privacy.”<br /> Neighbors have focused a webcam on the Seaspray house and put protest signs in their yards.<br /> Ray Jones, who lives across the street, said the protest hasn’t ended because of the settlement.<br /> “We still don’t want a boarding house in our neighborhood,” Jones said. “We are going to continue to fight in any way we can.”<br /> But Cary Glickstein, another opponent, said that there’s nothing more the city can do to legislate against sober houses in single-family neighborhoods.<br /> “This can only be summed up as a victory for Caron,” said Glickstein, the chairman of the city’s planning and zoning board and mayoral candidate. “The neighborhood got screwed.”<br /> The issue at trial would have been whether the city violated federal laws that prohibit housing discrimination against recovering alcoholics and addicts.<br /> Federal Judge William Dimitrouleas had criticized McDuffie and Glickstein for their public comments in an April order. The judge said Caron already had shown “a substantial likelihood for success at trial in demonstrating that the city has discriminated.”<br /> Coastal residents called for laws to restrict sober houses when they learned in December that the city had approved Caron’s request to house seven patients at its North Ocean Boulevard house. The city then denied Caron’s request to open the Seaspray Avenue sober house and required both houses to have landlord permits.<br /> </p></div>Delray Beach: Neighbors could be called to testify in Caron sober house trialhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-neighbors-could-be-called-to-testify-in-caron-sober-2012-07-05T16:10:16.000Z2012-07-05T16:10:16.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /><br />The Caron Foundation wants coastal Delray Beach residents to testify how they blocked Caron’s attempt to house recovering addicts and alcoholics near the ocean.<br />Caron attorney Jim Green told a federal judge in April that trial testimony will reveal a “a hostile and organized community reaction to our attempt to locate in an affluent area near the ocean.”<br /> Court papers show Caron has listed 72 potential witnesses in its federal discrimination lawsuit against the city. Many of the witnesses live near a Seaspray Avenue house where Caron wants to house seven patients in recovery.<br />Green wants to know the role that one particular neighbor — former County Commissioner Mary McCarty — played in organizing opposition to sober houses.<br />Green said he discovered McCarty’s involvement when examining emails between neighbors and city officials.<br />“Mary McCarty is a smart lady who has not always been on the right side of truth, justice and the law,” Green said.<br />McCarty has avoided the spotlight since her release from federal prison last year. She was sentenced in 2009 to 3½ years in prison after she pleaded guilty to a federal felony count of honest services fraud.<br />Ray Jones, an opposition leader who lives across the street from Caron’s controversial Seaspray Avenue house, said he’s ready to testify.<br />“It doesn’t bother me,” Jones said when informed that he is on Caron’s witness list. “It’s all about getting to the truth.”<br />Jones said McCarty hasn’t actively opposed Caron.<br />“She is on our email list and might have made a comment or two,” he said. “But she hasn’t been actively involved in this.”<br />Green traces McCarty’s opposition to sober houses back to 2007 when, as a county commissioner, she opposed giving $9.5 million in health care revenue bonds to Caron to build treatment facilities and offices in Delray Beach and Boca Raton.<br />“She has a long history of agitating against people in recovery,” Green said.<br />Green sued the county on Caron’s behalf after the 2007 denial, quoting McCarty in that lawsuit as saying she didn’t want Delray Beach to be known as “the drug rehab capital of the world.”<br />McCarty didn’t respond to phone messages seeking comment.<br />Caron filed its federal lawsuit in February after Delray Beach commissioners approved ordinances to make it more difficult for treatment providers to operate in residential neighborhoods.<br />Caron’s legal team has reviewed 50,000 documents so far to prepare for its trial against the city, Green said.<br />Caron also spent $27,788 to get 200,000 emails that have been sent or received by 16 city officials since 2007 to learn who has said what to whom to restrict sober housing.<br />“We’re trying to uncover backroom communications between the political machine and elected officials to determine the true intent of the city’s ordinances,” Caron executive vice president Andrew Rothermel said in March.<br />Caron also notified 40 coastal residents on May 11 that their communications will be sought as evidence for trial.<br />“These people have been vocal opponents of my client and its patients and appear to be willing to do anything and say anything,” Green said.<br />The Caron witness list includes 45 families who live near planned sober houses at 1232 Seaspray Ave. and 740 N. Ocean Blvd.<br />Also named as witnesses are Beach Property Owners Association officers Mary Renaud, Andy Katz, Anne Bright, Virginia Courtney and three others. <br />Kristine de Haseth, chairwoman of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, also will be a witness along with seven current and former city commissioners and five planning and zoning board members.<br />The store manager for Tiffany’s on Worth Avenue will testify that Delray coastal residents asked him to “steer clear” of sponsoring Caron’s annual fund-raising gala in Palm Beach, court papers say.<br />Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Planning and Zoning Board chairman Cary Glickstein are expected to be key Caron witnesses after federal Judge William Dimitrouleas criticized them in an April order for making comments against recovering addicts and alcoholics.<br />Dimitrouleas said then that Caron has shown “a substantial likelihood of success at trial in demonstrating that the city has discriminated.” <br />Federal laws prohibits housing discrimination against recovering addicts and alcoholics.<br />Caron plans to charge $55,000 a month to each of the seven recovering addicts who it hopes will occupy each of Caron’s two high-end sober houses near the ocean. <br />Attorneys defending the city against Caron’s lawsuit in court papers named seven planning and zoning board members, five city employees, seven Caron employees and a Jupiter private planner as their trial witnesses.<br />Dimitrouleas has not set a trial date. </p></div>Delray Beach: Enforcement of housing law blocked; Caron writes neighborshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-enforcement-of-housing-law-blocked-caron-writes-neig2012-05-30T20:00:00.000Z2012-05-30T20:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/forum/topics/caron-letter-to-neighbors">Letter from Caron</a> to neighbors<br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /> <br /> A federal judge has granted a temporary injunction to stop Delray Beach from enforcing its stringent transient housing ordinance against the Caron Foundation.<br /> U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas stopped short of ordering the city to grant Caron’s request to open a sober house for seven patients at 1232 Seaspray Ave.<br /> But he said Delray Beach must continue to process Caron’s request for reasonable accommodations there without violating federal laws that prohibit discrimination against recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.<br /> As Caron’s lawsuit heads for trial, the treatment provider shocked residents in the Seaspray neighborhood on May 11 by hand-delivering a letter notifying 40 neighbors that their communications will be sought as evidence for the trial.<br /> “We intend to examine all of your records, yard signs, notes, surveillance tapes, telephone and cell phone records, letters, emails, documents and writings concerning the Caron Foundation and its attempts to provide community housing to people in recovery,” Caron attorney Jim Green wrote.<br /> Responding to outrage over sober houses near the ocean, commissioners approved the transient housing ordinance on Feb. 21, one day before rejecting Caron’s request for the Seaspray house.<br /> “This sequence is highly suspect and strongly suggests that the city acted with an improper discriminatory motive,” Dimitrouleas wrote May 4.<br /> The transient housing ordinance lowers the number of times that bedrooms can be rented to three times per year. The city’s previous ordinance allowed six rentals per year.<br /> “The turnover rule would prevent Caron from effectively running its program,” the judge wrote in his 29-page ruling. “The house would essentially be inoperable.”<br /> The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until Caron’s lawsuit goes to trial to determine whether a permanent injunction should be granted and the city ordered to pay damages.<br /> Dimitrouleas wrote that Caron has shown “a substantial likelihood of success in demonstrating that the city has discriminated” when the case goes to trial.<br /> The drug and alcohol treatment provider moved its first three clients into its Seaspray Avenue house under the watchful eyes of security guards one day after distributing the letter to neighbors.<br /> “The letter’s timing a day before Caron moved people into the Seaspray home was suspect and the manner in which it was delivered — by bouncer-type goons trespassing over people’s private property — was repugnant,” neighbor Cary Glickstein said. “Residents are furious.”<br /> Mindy Farber, a lawyer who lives in the neighborhood, said Caron has no right to the communications because neighbors who oppose the sober house aren’t defendants in the lawsuit against the city.<br /> “It’s a frightening letter. What he’s done is bizarre,” Farber said. “I don’t think what he’s asking for is anything they have. I would just ignore him.”<br /> “These people have been vocal opponents of my client and its patients and appear to be willing to do anything and say anything to stop my client and its patients,” Green said. “I certainly have a right as a party in a federal discrimination lawsuit to obtain their records. While they are certainly free to speak, it’s clear that what they intend to do is highly relevant to the federal court.” He noted that the judge already quoted several residents in his written order granting the preliminary injunction.<br /> Glickstein, who chairs the city’s planning and zoning board, said Green’s intent in sending the letter has backfired.<br /> “Residents now are more galvanized than ever to continue this fight,” he said.<br /> Dimitrouleas quoted Glickstein and another board member in his ruling, saying they “made blatantly discriminatory statements” to pressure city commissioners to legislate against sober houses.<br /> Glickstein had called the sober house movement “a cancer in this town” that “denigrates the neighborhood.”<br /> Two federal laws, the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibit housing discrimination against recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.<br /> “I’m disappointed by some of the comments made by city residents,” city commissioner Adam Frankel said after the judge issued his order. “They cannot make comments or have demonstrations that are discriminatory in nature.”<br /> Dimitrouleas agreed with the city’s argument that Caron hadn’t provided enough medical justification to allow seven patients at its Seaspray sober house.<br /> Caron responded with lengthy written reports from two experts to provide that justification.<br /> “Seven is the clinically necessary number to foster a positive group dynamic and minimize the feelings of loneliness and isolation that are an addict’s biggest enemies and barriers to recovery,” wrote Dr. Riley Regan, who has served as the primary government official for alcoholism and drug addiction in three states. <br /> “If the program is limited to only three residents, it will be a wasted effort,” Regan wrote.<br /> Green offered Delray Beach one last opportunity after the May 4 ruling to settle the lawsuit and avoid a trial. “I know emotions have been running high, but I hope the city and the portion of the community that’s been hostile will reconsider now and work toward an amicable resolution of this controversy,” he said.<br /> City officials have refused to back off.<br /> “The judge didn’t strike down everything we’ve done,” Mayor Woodie McDuffie said. “We will continue to work toward defending our single-family neighborhoods.” <br /></p></div>Delray Beach: Caron seeks residents’ communications on sober house protesthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-caron-seeks-residents-communications-on-sober-house-2012-05-14T21:00:00.000Z2012-05-14T21:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Letter delivered to Seaspray neighbors: <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960393469,original{{/staticFileLink}}">Green_Letter%282%29.pdf</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>(Note: To protect privacy, the name and address has been removed by <em>The Coastal Star</em>)</strong></p>
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<p><strong><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /></strong></p>
<p> The Caron Foundation has notified neighbors near its Seaspray Avenue sober house that their communications will be sought as evidence in its lawsuit against Delray Beach.<br /> “We intend to examine all of your records, yard signs, notes, surveillance tapes, telephone and cell phone records, letters, emails, documents and writings concerning the Caron Foundation and its attempts to provide community housing to people in recovery,” Caron attorney Jim Green wrote in a letter that was hand-delivered to neighbors and subsequently made available to <i>The Coastal Star</i>.<br /> According to neighbors, the drug and alcohol treatment provider moved its first three clients into its house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. under the watchful eyes of security guards one day after distributing the letter.<br /> “The letter’s timing a day before Caron moved people into the Seaspray home was suspect and the manner in which it was delivered — by bouncer-type goons trespassing over people’s private property — was repugnant,” neighbor Cary Glickstein said. “Residents are furious.”<br /> Caron wants seven recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in the house. City law currently allows three unrelated people in a single-family home.<br /> Caron sued Delray Beach on Feb. 23 after the city denied its request for seven clients by saying Caron hadn’t provided sufficient justification for the request. A federal judge on May 4 ordered the city to continue processing Caron’s request without violating federal laws that prohibit discrimination against recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.<br /> The judge also granted Caron a temporary injunction to stop the city from enforcing a transient housing ordinance that makes it difficult for treatment providers to operate.<br /> Green is seeking the communications among residents as he prepares for a trial on both matters.<br /> “We consider all of this information to be important evidence that should be preserved,” he wrote the neighbors. “Therefore, please do not destroy, erase or over-write any writings or documents.”<br /> Residents called Green’s letter an attempt to intimidate them.<br /> “It’s a frightening letter. What he’s done is bizarre,” said Mindy Farber, an attorney who lives in the neighborhood but did not receive the letter, “I don’t think what he’s asking for is anything they have. I would just ignore him.”<br /> Glickstein, who chairs the city’s planning and zoning board, said Green’s intent in sending the letter has backfired.<br /> “Residents now are more galvanized than ever to continue this fight,” he said.</p></div>Delray Beach: Judge hearing sober-house wrangle encourages compromisehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-judge-hearing-sober-house-wrangle-encourages-comprom2012-05-02T18:52:18.000Z2012-05-02T18:52:18.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Tim Pallesen </strong><br /> <br />The Caron Foundation can’t sue Delray Beach for denying a Seaspray Avenue sober house because the request hasn’t been officially denied, an attorney for the city argued in court.<br /> The surprising twist came during an April 16 federal court hearing where the city also argued that Caron can’t claim a loss of income because it hasn’t placed recovering alcoholics and drug addicts into a second house where the city has given approval to operate.<br /> Federal Judge William Dimitrouleas promised to rule on Caron’s request for a preliminary injunction “as soon as I can” after the hearing in Fort Lauderdale.<br /> Caron claims the City Commission violated federal laws on Feb. 21 when it approved three ordinances to make it more difficult for treatment providers to operate and on Feb. 22 when Caron says the city refused its request to open a sober house at 1232 Seaspray Ave.<br /> “We contend that the city had no reason to deny us other than the hostile and organized community reaction to our attempt to locate in an affluent area near the ocean,” Caron attorney James Green told the judge.<br /> Green claimed public comments by Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Cary Glickstein show the city is intentionally discriminating against recovering alcoholics and addicts.<br /> “We are willing to do all in our power to control the proliferation of these homes,” McDuffie said in a Feb. 1 email that Green gave the judge.<br /> Glickstein strongly urged commissioners to oppose sober houses before their Feb. 21 vote. “It is a cancer in this town,” he said.<br /> But Matthew Mandel, an attorney representing the city, countered that Delray Beach is only trying to regulate transient housing. “The ordinance is not discriminatory because it applies to all single-family dwellings,” he argued.<br /> Mandel said the city is waiting for Caron to provide medical justification for its request to house seven clients at the Seaspray address. “They haven’t gotten a final decision from us,” he told the judge.<br /> Caron wants the city to pay $55,000 per client in monthly damages because it can’t open the Seaspray house.<br /> But Mandel countered that Caron has another house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. to place its clients. “They have to explain how they’ve had that house available for a year and not put one person in there,” he said.<br /> Dimitrouleas questioned the $55,000 monthly cost for treatment. “What if you can never get seven people who can afford to pay?” he asked. <br />Green said Caron has “more than enough” wealthy clients.<br /> The judge encouraged the two sides to discuss a settlement, suggesting a compromise that would allow five rather than seven clients in the house.<br /> “It wouldn’t crush me if you all got together and came up with some reasonable settlement,” Dimitrouleas said.<br /> But such a settlement appears unlikely.<br /> The nonprofit treatment provider didn’t get a response when it wrote city officials on April 2 offering three incentives if Delray Beach would allow it to place seven clients at the Seaspray house.<br /> The nonprofit Caron offered to pay property taxes on both its houses for five years, waive its claim for damages and attorney fees, and pay for classes on prevention of bullying, alcohol and drug abuse in six Delray Beach schools.<br /> Green also asked Mandel to discuss a settlement after Monday’s hearing, but the city’s attorney declined.<br /> If Dimitrouleas doesn’t grant a preliminary injunction, Green said, Caron will either appeal that decision or prepare to argue for a permanent in-junction at a future hearing. </p></div>Judge hears arguments in Caron vs. Delray suithttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/judge-hears-arguments-in-caron-vs-delray-suit2012-04-16T18:00:00.000Z2012-04-16T18:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong></p>
<p> The <span style="border-bottom:2px dotted #366388;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1334598977_0">Caron Foundation</span> can’t sue <span style="border-bottom:2px dotted #366388;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1334598977_1">Delray Beach</span> for denying a Seaspray Avenue sober house because the request hasn’t been officially denied, an attorney for the city argued Monday.<br /> The surprising twist came during a federal court hearing where the city also argued that Caron can’t claim a loss of income because it hasn’t put recovering alcoholics and drug addicts into a second house where it has approval to operate.<br /> Federal judge William Dimitrouleas promised to rule on Caron’s request for a preliminary injunction “as soon as I can” after the hearing in Fort Lauderdale.<br /> Caron claims the city council violated federal laws on Feb. 21 when it approved three ordinances to make it more difficult for treatment providers to operate and on Feb. 22 when Caron says the city refused its request to open a sober house at 1232 Seaspray Ave.<br /> “We contend that the city had no reason to deny us other than the hostile and organized community reaction to our attempt to locate in an affluent area near the ocean,” Caron attorney James Green told the judge.<br /> Green claimed public comments by Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Cary Glickstein prove the city’s intent to discriminate against recovering alcoholics and addicts.<br /> But Matthew Mandel, an attorney representing the city, countered that Delray Beach is only trying to regulate transient housing. “The ordinance is not discriminatory because it applies to all single-family dwellings,” he argued.<br /> Mandel said the city is waiting for Caron to provide medical justification for its request to house seven clients at the Seaspray address. “They haven’t gotten a final decision from us,” he told the judge.<br /> Caron wants the city to pay $55,000 per client in monthly damages because it can’t open the Seaspray house.<br /> But Mandel countered that Caron has another house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. to place its clients. “They have to explain how they’ve had that house available for a year and not put one person in there,” he said.<br /> Dimitrouleas questioned the $55,000 monthly cost for treatment. “What if you can never get seven people who can afford to pay?” he asked. Green said Caron has “more than enough” wealthy clients.<br /> The judge encouraged the two sides to discuss a settlement, suggesting a compromise that would allow five rather than seven clients in the house. But a settlement appears unlikely.<br /> The non-profit treatment provider didn’t get a response when it wrote city officials on April 2 offering three incentives if Delray Beach would allow it to place seven clients at the Seaspray house.<br /> Caron offered to pay property taxes on both its houses for five years, waive its claim for damages and attorney fees, and pay for classes to prevent alcohol and drug abuse in six Delray Beach schools.<br /> Green also asked Mandel to discuss a settlement after Monday’s hearing, but the city’s attorney declined.</p></div>Delray Beach: Caron ordered to pay for extensive records searchhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-caron-ordered-to-pay-for-extensive-records-search2012-04-05T16:12:45.000Z2012-04-05T16:12:45.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /><br /> A judge says the Caron Foundation must pay $27,788 to Delray Beach in a public records request for more than 200,000 emails that Caron wants to investigate in its lawsuit against the city.<br /> Caron wants to review all email communications sent and received by 16 city officials since August 2007 to learn who said what to whom before Delray Beach approved three ordinances to restrict sober housing in February.<br /> “We’re trying to uncover backroom communications between the political machine and elected officials to determine the true intent of the ordinances,” Caron Executive Vice President Andrew Rothermel said.<br /> Caron sued the city in federal court on Feb. 24 to overturn the ordinances that the City Council approved three days before.<br />Caron followed up on March 27 by requesting a preliminary injunction to allow it to immediately open a sober house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. that the city refused to approve on Feb. 22.<br />Caron’s attorney Jim Green provided newspaper articles and meeting minutes to bolster that request.<br />“After going through tens of thousands of documents already, it’s absolutely clear that the city decided to retaliate against Caron for having the gumption to locate a quality home for recovering addicts and alcoholics in an affluent neighborhood east of the Intracoastal,” Green said.<br />To investigate more, Caron wants the e-mails of the mayor and council members, planning and zoning board members, city manager, city attorney and other officials.<br /> Delray Beach responded to that request by saying the e-mails would cost $21,744 for an in-house attorney to first inspect for exempt and confidential material at a cost of $60.15 per hour for 362 hours, plus another $6,043 for network engineering time.<br /> Caron then sued in state circuit court, calling those costs excessive. But Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley sided with the city.<br /> “While use of an attorney may not always be appropriate in a public records review, the evidence in this case establishes that the proposed review is reasonable,” Kelley wrote in his ruling. “While the hourly rate for an in-house attorney may be higher than other personnel, this is offset by which the counsel can identify the confidential or exempt materials.”<br /> Kelley also rejected Caron’s request for Delray Beach to assist in obtaining personal cell phone records from the same 16 city officials, ruling that those records are not public.<br /> The city’s victory is the first court ruling in what’s expected to be a long and costly battle that began last December when coastal property owners discovered Caron’s plans to open two sober houses for wealthy recovering drug addicts and alcoholics near the ocean.<br /><br /><strong>Some unconvinced by Caron’s assurances</strong><br /> Rothermel explained why Caron came to Delray Beach in a March 16 speech before a members-only Chamber of Commerce meeting.<br /> “Delray Beach is the most attractive community in the country for recovery,” he told a subdued room of Chamber members. “There’s a ton of people in recovery here.”<br /> Unlike sober houses located west of the Intracoastal Waterway, Caron is marketing “a highly sophisticated program for individuals of affluence,” Rothermel said.<br /> Clients will pay more than $50,000 a month to receive treatment in Boca Raton while living in Caron’s sober houses on Seaspray Avenue and at 740 N. Ocean Blvd.<br /> “People are lining up,” he said.<br /> Rothermel described the program’s first client as the top-ranking executive of a large European company who stayed at the Boca Raton Resort and Club during his 60 days of treatment because the Delray houses aren’t open.<br /> “Because our patients are highly functioning and successful, the impact on this community will be low,” he assured the Chamber members.<br /> “If not for a couple dozen residents on the barrier island making a big fuss about this, you would never know they were here,” Rothermel said. “Let us show you that we’re going to be good neighbors.”<br /> His assurance didn’t satisfy Cary Glickstein, a coastal resident who chairs the city’s planning and zoning board.<br /> “You don’t operate in a neighborhood where you live,” Glickstein told Rothermel at the March 16 meeting. “Don’t you see the hypocrisy?” <br /><br /></p></div>Delray Beach: Caron sues city over sober house restrictionshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-caron-sues-city-over-sober-house-restrictions2012-03-01T17:58:17.000Z2012-03-01T17:58:17.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960377474,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960377474,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960377474?profile=original" /></a><em>Neighbors of the home Caron purchased stand in front of portraits of former Delray Beach mayors and wear white to protest the rehabilitation center’s request to turn its property into a sober house during a meeting at City Hall. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /><br />The Caron Foundation has sued Delray Beach after the city denied its request to operate a sober house for seven recovering alcoholics and drug addicts at 1232 Seaspray Ave.<br /> City commissioners also had responded to outrage over sober houses near the ocean on Feb. 21 by approving three ordinances to make it more difficult and restrictive for treatment providers to operate in the city.<br /> “The city might not like it, but our rights are well settled by federal laws,” Caron vice president Andrew Rothermel responded, calling the city’s actions discriminatory. “I don’t think the commissioners had the will to do the right thing in light of the public outcry.”<br /> The denial to operate the Seaspray house came in a Feb. 22 letter from planning and zoning director Paul Dorling, who said Caron had failed to show why seven residents were necessary for the house to be “therapeutically successful” and “financially viable.”<br /> A parade of upset residents had implored commissioners at a Feb. 21 public hearing to protect their single-family neighborhoods.<br /> “Your taxpayers are angry,” resident Louise Kornfeld said. “We expect you to fight this battle with us.”<br /> “I’m sick and tired of bumping into every junkie who lives in Delray Beach,” Anita Casey agreed. “Let’s kick Caron out.”<br /> Caron’s Rothermel has asked residents to give them the chance to show they can be good neighbors. He has stressed the house is intended for wealthy executives in recovery who will be paying some $50,000 a month to live in the house. They will receive their treatment in Caron’s facility in Boca Raton.<br />The most significant new ordinance reduces the turnover of bedrooms rented to alcoholics and drug addicts from six to three times per year. City commissioners also passed ordinances to beef up the application process to operate a sober house and to obtain a landlord permit.<br /> “We designed our program to follow the city’s rules and they decided to change the rules midstream,” Rothermel complained after the three ordinances were approved. “If they use these ordinances to restrict us, they’re going to have a fight on their hands.” <br /> The suit, filed Feb. 24 in federal court in West Palm Beach, seeks an injunction to prevent the city from enforcing the new rules. Caron also seeks attorney fees and damages, which it says could be in the millions. <br /> Residents had urged commissioners on Feb. 21 to hang tough despite repeated threats of such a lawsuit.<br /> “This is a big fight that you’re signing up for,” resident Jack Barrette said at the public hearing. “But the neighborhoods are behind you.”<br /> The ordinance to limit rental turnovers would restrict treatment providers by forcing sober houses to operate at half their capacity, Rothermel said.<br /> Recovering alcoholics and drug addicts typically stay in a sober house for two months. With only three turnovers allowed per year, each bedroom could only be used for six months per year.<br /> “It’s really detrimental to have patients living in a house that’s half-empty,” Rothermel said. “They don’t get the benefit of a sober living environment.”<br /> The right for treatment providers to house up to seven patients in residential neighborhoods was established in 2007 when Boca Raton attempted to limit sober housing. A federal judge struck down Boca Raton’s limit of only three patients per house after the American Civil Liberties Union argued that patients have a greater chance of recovery with more patients in a sober house.<br /> The judge reaffirmed that recovering alcoholics and drug addicts are protected from discrimination under the federal Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.<br /> Delray Beach, anticipating Caron’s lawsuit, had hired outside attorneys to advise how the city could fight sober housing by other means.<br /> The new application procedure for sober house approvals requires that treatment providers provide an address for proposed sober houses so neighbors have time to object.<br /> Most neighbors of the Seaspray Avenue house have posted signs in their yards declaring “Just Say No” to Caron’s housing plan and another neighbor installed a motion-sensitive webcam for surveillance on Caron’s house. They claim that the treatment provider already has been serving meals to clients who live elsewhere.<br /> They also started a Facebook page, TakeBackDelrayBeach, where they update developments in the case and chronicle comings and goings at the house, such as a time police were called there. The page points out that police protection and trash removal are essentially free services, since Caron, as a nonprofit operation, pays no property taxes.<br />Neighbor Ray Jones said residents also considered an electronic protest sign outside the Caron Foundation’s gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach on Feb. 25, but were discouraged by Palm Beach police.<br /> “The residents have created an environment where we were unable to find a win-win solution to this,” Rothermel said. “The silver lining for us is that we’re entitled in court to several million dollars per year in damages if this drags out.”</p></div>Delray Beach: Legal battle looming over recovery houseshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-legal-battle-looming-over-recovery-houses2012-02-02T16:19:00.000Z2012-02-02T16:19:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960366868,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960366868,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960366868?profile=original" /></a></strong><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960366868,original{{/staticFileLink}}"></a></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Kelly Barrette and Raymond Jones distribute signs around their coastal Delray Beach neigh-borhood to protest the planned upscale recovery houses for people with drug and alcohol addictions. <strong>Photo by Jerry Lower</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Tim Pallesen and Antigone Barton</strong><br /><br />As Delray Beach moves aggressively to restrict addiction-recovery houses amid single-family homes, the threat of a legal battle increases.<br />The City Commission will decide this month whether to limit how often rooms can be rented in single-family neighborhoods.<br />The city’s outside attorneys are advising whether a request by Caron Treatment Centers to house wealthy, recovering addicts on Seaspray Avenue can be denied.<br />And a city official says Caron lacks a necessary landlord permit to operate another sober house on Ocean Boulevard.<br />“If they do any of this stuff, they’re going to get a lawsuit,” Caron Executive Vice President Andrew Rothermel warned.<br />Meanwhile, residents living near the two, ocean-side million-dollar homes that Caron intends to convert into upscale recovery houses, are working to sabotage Caron’s marketing promise of recovery in “anonymity and discretion.”<br />Three large signs decorate the lawn across the street from 1232 Seaspray Ave.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960366673,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960366673,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960366673?profile=original" /></a>“Caron, your business is NOT WELCOME in our Single Family neighborhood …” the largest one reads.<br />“Paparazzi Welcome Here! We’ve got our eyes (and our lenses) on you!”<br />Neighbor Kelly Barrette has passed out some 100 additional signs that urge neighbors to “Just Say No” to transient housing.<br />“It’s a single family residence community,” Barrette said. “It’s the constant turnover of people who we never get a chance to know. It’s a transient issue.”<br />Those signs have spread across coastal Delray Beach and are posted across the street of another house Caron purchased at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. as well as along Nassau Street to the south, where Caron was once rumored to be eying a house.<br />Caron has said its clients will receive all their clinical treatment at its facility in Boca Raton. <br />But Caron’s assurances that the “boutique” center would offer “exclusive services” and house wealthy, elite and “discerning” clients paying upward of $60,000 a month has done little to comfort neighbors, Barrette said.<br />“Like having Lindsay Lohan in there was going to make it better,” she said.<br />Rothermel insists that Caron will maintain the values of the neighborhood. He asks that neighbors, “let us prove to them that we’re going to be good neighbors.”<br />He said one house would be for recovering men, the other for women. He added he hoped clients would be moving in by the end of this month.<br />Neighborhood resident and attorney Mindy Farber said she is concerned that Caron, citing federal regulations, won’t disclose the names of the clients or the nature of the problem being treated.<br />“They’re not saying if it’s sexual predators or people who are registered sexual offenders,” she said. “It’s one thing to be a friendly neighbor; it’s another not to be told who your neighbors are. It’s totally creepy.”<br />It’s also an issue that seems increasingly likely to end up in federal court.<br />Last month, the city hired its Miami and Washington, D.C., law firms after coastal residents learned in December that Caron was buying houses near the ocean.<br />City commissioners asked the city’s planning and zoning board to review a proposal to lower the number of times that bedrooms can be rented in a single-family home from six to three times a year. The planning board has recommended only two rentals per year.<br />That proposal is scheduled to be back before city commissioners on Feb. 7 after outside attorneys review its legality.<br />“We are running absolutely everything by outside counsel now,” assistant city attorney Terrill Pyburn said.<br />The Miami law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske and the Washington, D.C., legal and lobbying firm of Patton, Boggs and Blow were hired to determine whether the city’s laws can be tightened to restrict either the number of the unrelated people or length of stay in a house.<br />A lawsuit would pit the same two attorneys who battled over Boca Raton’s attempt five years ago to restrict sober houses. Boca Raton was sued when it said no more than three unrelated people could live in a single-family home.<br />The federal lawsuit resulted in a judge reaffirming that recovering alcoholics and drug addicts have protection under the federal Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.<br />The judge ruled in 2007 that Boca Raton’s limit of three patients created a “disparate impact” on patients. Attorney James Green, representing the American Civil Liberties Union, had argued that sober house patients have a greater chance of recovery if more patients are in the house.<br />The judge lifted his injunction after a procedure was adopted in which treatment providers can request a “reasonable accommodation” to allow more than three patients in a sober house. That procedure is followed now in both Boca Raton and Delray Beach.<br />Rothermel warns that Delray Beach will lose in court, too, if it attempts to restrict recovery houses in other ways.<br />“The politicians are clearly pandering to property owners east of the Intracoastal Waterway,” he said. “They can’t restrict sober living. They can veil their actions, but they’re clearly discriminatory under the Fair Housing Act. The city is going to waste a ton of time and money.”<br />Green now represents Caron. The city’s lead attorney is Matthew Mandel, who represented Boca Raton.<br />Caron on Dec. 19, requested a reasonable accommodation to allow seven clients to live in a five-bedroom, $3 million house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. it purchased last month. The city has until early this month to decide whether to grant the request and if it denies, Caron has 30 days to appeal to the City Commission.<br />A reasonable accommodation waiver has already been granted to Caron to house seven patients at 740 N. Ocean Blvd.<br />But a city official says that Caron can’t open the house until it gets a permit required for anyone who rents residential property. <br />“They will be required to have a landlord permit,” said Lula Butler, the city’s community improvement director.<br />Rothermel disputes that Caron needs such a permit. “Our patients are not renting real estate,” he said.<br />City officials early last year approved the reasonable accommodation request for 740 N. Ocean Blvd. without asking Caron for the address.<br />The planning and zoning board recommended at its Jan. 23 meeting that an address be required for future applications.<br />“We’re trying to come up with something that makes it difficult to operate in single-family neighborhoods,” board chairman Cary Glickstein said of the city’s efforts.<br />“Caron is exploiting something the fair housing and ADA laws never intended to allow addicts perhaps with criminal records to live there,” Glickstein said. “It’s just a matter of time before this gets shut down.”<br />And however long that takes, residents vow, the signs will remain posted. “This is a statement we felt like we needed to make,” Barrette said, “to make sure they continue to hear us.” </p></div>At Caron, a new treatment idea – and a nose for businesshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/at-caron-a-new-treatment-idea-and-a-nose-for-business2012-02-02T16:00:00.000Z2012-02-02T16:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Thomas R. Collins</strong><br /> <br /> The decision by Caron Treatment Centers to spend millions of dollars to buy two large houses near the ocean in Delray Beach is designed to expand the organization’s addiction-treatment offerings.<br /> It could also be seen as a shrewd business decision.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960364694,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960364694,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960364694?profile=original" /></a>The genesis of Caron’s venture into luxurious, beachside residences for clients undergoing treatment — called the “Ocean Drive” program — lies in the 1990s. That’s when changes to the insurance industry and the dawn of managed care “decimated treatment benefits,” said Andrew Rothermel, an executive vice president and the president of Florida operations for Caron, which has headquarters near Philadelphia but has treatment facilities in Boca Raton and elsewhere.<br /> After that, nonprofit Caron ended its contracts with insurance companies, choosing instead to rely only on self-pay and gifts from donors for its operations, and to charge people on a sliding scale according to their income, Rothermel said recently.<br /> That has put more pressure to find revenue other ways. And the treatment of rich clients is a way to do that, Rothermel said. It also will mean “more money in the bucket” for “charity care” for financially struggling addicts, he said.<br /> “That provides more care to the people that need it,” Rothermel said.<br /> Caron is seeking an exception to Delray Beach’s limit of three unrelated people who can live together in a single-family neighborhood. The clients, as many as 14 at a time in the two beachfront homes, would undergo treatment at Caron’s treatment center in Boca Raton.<br /> The ocean-side venture is just another segment of the big business of addiction treatment in South Florida, particularly Delray Beach.<br /> The treatment industry ranges from halfway houses in lower- and middle-income neighborhoods — Delray Beach is a nationally known halfway-house hotbed — to the big-gala and big-name philanthropy scene of nonprofits such as Caron.<br /> Laura Lee Chapman, who runs nine halfway houses in Palm Beach County with the for-profit Stepping Stones LLC and is familiar with the recovery business, said, “It can be very big with making money.”<br /> The finances can even work out more favorably for a nonprofit, like Caron, than a for-profit business, because of the ability to accept tax-deductible donations and grants, Chapman said. Perhaps not surprisingly, she is starting a nonprofit group.<br /> “I would actually make more money with a nonprofit than I would with a [for-]profit,” she said. “You give yourself a salary and you get paid from the grant money.”<br /> Caron’s Ocean Drive initiative — with clients paying $60,000 a month and expected to stay two or three months at a time — is big revenue-generator because “people are willing to pay for it,” Rothermel said.<br /> It’s a new focus for Caron — affluent clients who are highly functioning in their career and their lives, but who also need an intensive clinical addiction program.<br /> A Caron brochure promises “preeminent addiction treatment” that’s “individualized for the most privileged client,” in which “paddle boarding, kayaking, yoga and quiet walks or runs on the beach are all part of the healing process.” <br /> Caron officials have said they’re not seeking the celebrity client and that program rules put a premium on anonymity.<br /> The venture will give Caron access to a niche market.<br /> “It’s a very narrow level of care, but there’s no one else doing it,” Rothermel said.<br /> Adi Jaffe, an addiction psychologist in Los Angeles who runs the Web site <a href="http://www.allaboutaddiction.com">www.allaboutaddiction.com</a>, said changes to medical insurance provisions — putting it on a par with physical care — might lead to the spread of even more treatment centers, including in South Florida.<br /> Plus, health care reform will likely mean insurance to a “huge new pool of people looking for treatment,” he said.<br /> The impact remains to be seen, he said.<br /> “That really depends on what the treatment centers that currently exist do,” he said. “There are many treatment centers that are operating far below capacity right now.”<br /> Whether treatment-related facilities continue to spread or not, it remains a big business, particularly at Caron, where this month’s $500- to $1,000-a-plate fundraising gala at Mar-a-Lago features honorary chairman Donald Trump, football great Joe Theismann and entertainment by comedian Richard Lewis.<br /> At Caron Foundation of Florida, in the 2009-10 fiscal year — the latest for which information was available — and the national Richard J. Caron Foundation, salaries and compensation make up more than 40 percent of the total expenses, tax documents show.<br /> That is less than it was at the West Palm Beach-based Hanley Center in 2009-10, the year before Caron bought it. That year, Hanley’s salaries and compensation accounted for 55 percent of the expenses, records show.<br /> Rothermel said he wishes Caron’s percentage were higher.<br /> “I wish we could pay our staff better,” he said. “The more staff we have and the more highly credentialed staff we have, the better our treatment’s going to be and the better our long-term results are going to be.” He said it’s a staff-reliant business that delivers “an intensely personal product.”<br /> Caron’s president and CEO, Douglas Tieman, made $522,000 a year in 2009-10. At least seven other officers are paid more than $200,000 a year at Caron, which has about 800 employees. Rothermel made $245,000 in fiscal year 2009-10, the tax documents show.<br /> Rothermel said those salaries are comparable to other top officials in the industry. Before the acquisition by Caron, the top official with 254-employee Hanley made $335,000, the records show.<br /> In the same year, the head of the nonprofit cultural group Society of the Four Arts, with 33 employees, made $314,000 a year, tax documents show. <br /> “We try to be below the 50th percentile, based on a ton of different factors,” Rothermel said. “But at the same time, if we lose a senior person, it is very, very hard to replace that person.”<br /> Caron’s charity care was about $10 million in the last year tax documents were available. Rothermel said the goal is $16 million this fiscal year.<br /> He said the Ocean Drive venture would generate $1 million to $2 million for new charity care.<br /> Rothermel said Caron also provides boosts to the local economy, with $5.7 million in salaries to local staffers, $5.8 million spent with community vendors and 3,200 hotel nights booked in the last fiscal year, many by families visiting those in treatment.<br /> Mary Renaud — president of the Beach Property Owners association, which represents the Delray Beach barrier island and is opposing Caron’s plans — said the financial details don’t matter to her.<br /> “It doesn’t matter if they’re making a profit or a loss,” she said. “It’s that they’re running a business in a single-family neighborhood and that’s not allowed in Delray Beach.”<br /> Bob Ganger — head of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which is also challenging the proposal — said the business aspect of Caron is directly linked to the amount of disruption that might come to the neighborhood. <br /> It makes business sense to maximize income per renter and to stay fully occupied, likely meaning a rapidly revolving door of tenants.<br /> “That’s basic Economics 101,” he said. And the result is that “your neighbors are whoever happens to be in the home at any given time.” </p></div>Along the Coast: Cities oppose new law being proposed for sober housinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-cities-oppose-new-law-being-proposed-for-sober-ho2012-02-01T23:30:00.000Z2012-02-01T23:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /> <br /> Boca Raton and Delray Beach are tracking a bill in the Florida Senate that would establish rules for a “sober house transitional living home.”<br /> The proposal by state Sen. Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, would require supervision of the residents of such a home, require that it comply with standards of occupancy set by the local government and provide restrictions on the provision of onsite substance abuse treatment services.<br /> Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell said the city has “significant concerns” with the bill, SB 1026, as does Delray Beach, “because it would significantly alter how sober homes are treated and make them a lot more possible in our community.” Ahnell said he and his Delray Beach counterparts are monitoring the bill’s progress in Tallahassee.<br /> “We may be writing letters in opposition to that bill, to the League of Cities, who’s currently supporting the bill but we don’t believe understands it, depending on how it gets amended,’’ Ahnell told City Council members at their Jan. 24 meeting.<br /> Council Member Michael Mullaugh said the county League of Cities does not support Bogdanoff’s bill, “but they haven’t been able to convince the state people.’’<br /> “So we want to be careful in the letter to make it clear that the Palm Beach County League of Cities does understand … this bill is no bill at all,’’ Mullaugh said. “It’s truly a disaster.’’<br /> In a letter dated Jan. 23, Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie specified his city’s concerns. The bill, he wrote Bogdanoff and the Florida League of Cities, provides that “treatment, including ‘Detoxification,’ may take place in single-family zoning districts.”<br /> The bill would also allow a sober house in single-family districts to have up to six unrelated residents, McDuffie complained.<br /> “Based on the foregoing, we believe that if Proposed SB1026 passes, it will be more harmful than helpful,” McDuffie concluded.<br /> The state League of Cities downgraded its position on the bill from “Support” to “Watch” in its Jan. 27 Legislative Bulletin. Bogdanoff sponsored a similar bill in the 2011 legislative session; it died in committee.<br /> In the 2010 legislative session then-state Sen. Dave Aronberg introduced an amendment with input from Delray Beach and Boca Raton that would have prevented a sober house from opening within 1,000 feet of another sober house. The amendment was later dropped on a point of order. </p></div>Delray Beach: Neighbors post signs to protest proposed sober househttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-neighbors-post-signs-to-protest-proposed-sober-house2012-01-21T19:30:38.000Z2012-01-21T19:30:38.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960374273,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960374273,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="238" alt="7960374273?profile=original" /></a>By Antigone Barton</strong></p>
<p> Decorated with photos of the “calming Atlantic Ocean,” a brochure for a proposed residence for recovering addicts promises: “You can’t get more private than this — gated and secure with no signage. Anonymity and discretion set the tone . . .”</p>
<p> But if the Caron Foundation, a nonprofit addiction treatment organization, gets city permission to open a luxury sober house on Seaspray Avenue, it may not be able to keep that promise there.</p>
<p> Right now, three large signs decorate the lawn of the house directly across the street from 1232 Seaspray Ave.</p>
<p> “Caron Your Business is NOT WELCOME in our Single Family neighborhood . . .” the largest one, a weatherproof, roughly 3-by-4-foot poster says.</p>
<p> “Paparazzi Welcomed Here! We’ve got our eyes (and our lenses) on you!” another one says.</p>
<p> The third, and smallest, says “No transient housing!”</p>
<p> Signs with that last message also stand in front of every other house on the street, and are Seaspray Avenue residents’ response to a planned residence for affluent recovering addicts in their neighborhood.</p>
<p> The sign sums up the unifying theme of residents’ objections to the plan, said Kelly Barrette, one of the neighbors who had distributed close to 100 signs in four days during the third week of January.</p>
<p> “It’s a single-family residence community,” Barrette said. “It’s the constant turnover of people who we never get a chance to know. It’s a transient issue.”</p>
<p> The planned residence is seen as blight on a quiet and close-knit residential street.</p>
<p> Caron has said that its clients will receive all their clinical treatment at its facility in Boca Raton. But its assurances that the “boutique” center would offer “exclusive services” and house wealthy, elite and “discerning” clients has done little to comfort neighbors, Barrette said.</p>
<p> “Like having Lindsay Lohan in there was going to make it better,” she said.</p>
<p> Not one neighbor has turned down a sign, she added. </p>
<p> George Whitney of Nassau Street, who was alarmed at what turned out to be a false report of plans for a sober house in his neighborhood came over to “see what was going on” on Seaspray Avenue. He found a group of Seaspray neighbors discussing Caron.</p>
<p> “It affects every street, because it opens the door to similar businesses,” Barrette said.</p>
<p> “If it was <i>any</i> business,” insisted Beach Drive resident Steve Alport, “I’d be against it.”</p>
<p> The neighboring town of Gulf Stream, “doesn’t even allow Tupperware parties,” another in the group mentioned.</p>
<p> The nature of this particular operation, though, has clearly galvanized a street tucked off AIA where neighbors know each other, said Mindy Farber, a neighborhood resident and attorney.</p>
<p> Caron’s application in front of the city’s Planning and Zoning Department asks for “reasonable accommodation” that would allow more unrelated people to live together than the three allowed by current zoning.</p>
<p> The application seeks to house up to seven people in the five-bedroom, $3 million house. Caron has said the clients would pay up to $60,000 a month for a minimum two-month stay.</p>
<p> It also cites federal regulations that it says prohibits disclosure of the name of the client and the nature of the problem being treated.</p>
<p> “They’re not saying if its sexual predators or people who are registered sexual offenders,” said Mindy Farber, a neighborhood resident and attorney. “It’s one thing to be a friendly neighbor; it’s another not to be told who your neighbors are. It’s totally creepy,” she said.</p>
<p> Farber, who has served as vice president for the American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Montgomery County Maryland, says the signs are protected by the First Amendment.</p>
<p> The neighborhood’s response has pitted “civil libertarian against civil libertarian,” she said. Caron’s pending application for “reasonable accommodation” in the neighborhood was filed by West Palm Beach attorney James Green, known for his many years of work on ACLU cases.</p>
<p> “The signs themselves may be protected by the First Amendment,” Green agrees. But he adds the future residents of a future Caron residence — wherever it may be — are protected as well by the Fair Housing Act. </p>
<p> Delray’s Planning and Zoning department has until Feb. 2 to make a decision on Caron’s application. If it denies the request, Caron has 30 days to appeal the decision to the City Commission.</p>
<p> The signs will stay as long as a house for recovering addicts is planned on their street, Seaspray residents say.</p>
<p> “This is a statement we felt like we needed to make,” Barrette said, “to make sure they continue to hear us.”</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960374097,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960374097,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960374097?profile=original" /></a></p></div>Neighbors criticize secretive purchase of home for rehabhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/neighbors-criticize-secretive-purchase-of-home-for-rehab2012-01-04T22:30:00.000Z2012-01-04T22:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Caron Treatment Center video: <a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/video/an-overview-of-ocean-drive">Ocean Drive</a> | <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960364894,original{{/staticFileLink}}">Ocean_Drive_brochure.pdf</a><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Tim Pallesen</strong><br /> <br /> Neighbors weren’t aware last January when Caron Treatment Centers applied to operate a top-tier sober house steps from the ocean.<br /> They weren’t aware a few weeks later when the city gave the Pennsylvania-based Caron approval to operate a five-bed facility without even knowing the facility’s address. <br /> They weren’t aware last April when Caron paid $1,595,000 through a local attorney to buy a house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd.<br /> And by the time neighbors learned early last month about the planned rehab retreat for wealthy executives, movie stars and pro athletes with addictions, it might have been too late to do anything about it.<br /> But they soon were fighting back. <br /> Mindy Farber, a civil rights attorney who owns a house in coastal Delray Beach, was contacted by angered coastal property owners seeking legal advice to oppose Caron.<br /> Farber said Caron’s application was “inadequate and required much more information and scrutiny.”<br /> She also believed the city would be on sound legal footing if it tightened its regulations regarding the number of people allowed to live in a sober house and limited the turnover.<br /> Word of the proposed seaside enclave for well-to-do rehabbing people trickled out last month after neighbors heard rumors and checked out Caron’s website. They noticed a familiar house.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960365653,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960365653,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960365653?profile=original" /></a> The website describe the house’s “away from it all” setting as perfect for paddle boarding, kayaking and walks on the beach just steps from “Delray Beach’s small town, urban chic charm.”<br /> “This is outrageous,” said Bill McCauley, one of the Ocean Boulevard neighbors urging Delray Beach officials to tighten laws to prevent transient housing in single-family residential neighborhoods. “This is not welcome in our quiet beach community.”<br /> Sober houses for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts aren’t new in Delray Beach. But no houses were known to exist east of the Intracoastal Waterway. <br /> Until now.<br /> Caron says it is marketing its “Ocean Drive” residence to a wealthy clientele that demands all the amenities. A lesser address won’t do.<br /> “These are people of influence and affluence who are running your brokerage firm or might be your banker,” Caron executive vice president Andrew Rothermel said. “They are high performing but they have a chemical dependency.<br /> “They don’t do well in a facility that has fewer amenities,” Rothermel said. Among the amenities planned for Ocean Drive, set to open this year: 24-hour staffing, and around-the-clock nutritionists and chefs, according to Caron’s website.<br /> About two weeks after residents began complaining about the Ocean Drive proposal, Caron removed from its website a video and brochure touting the facility.<br /> City records reviewed by The Coastal Star show that on Jan. 14, 2011, West Palm Beach attorney James Green applied for “reasonable accommodations” for a residence to house recovering addicts that would be operated by Caron. He cited federal housing and anti-discrimination laws for not having to divulge the address of the house.<br /> Attorney Farber’s response: Green’s request was a “misapplication of the law.”<br /> She added, “Since it does not appear that they are getting treatment in Delray, we see no reason for the confidentiality of the address and we see no basis for the residents being considered disabled.”<br /> Property records show Delray Beach attorney Michael Weiner acted as a trustee for an undisclosed entity when he purchased the 6,120-square-foot house last April.<br /> Weiner declined comment. Rothermel said that Weiner “has represented us from time to time on a number of issues.”<br /> Cary Glickstein, the chairman of the city’s planning and zoning board, blasted the transaction at a Dec. 19 zoning hearing.<br /> “This is a commercial enterprise using attorneys to take title so the corporation can remain anonymous as long as possible,” Glickstein said. “It just plain stinks.”<br /> Glickstein also criticized Paul Dorling, the city planning and zoning director, for approving Caron’s request to operate without asking for an address. <br /> Dorling said, considering legal rulings that protect the privacy of recovering patients, that the address was “irrelevant.”<br /> “It seems absurd that the city is granting approval without an address,” Glickstein responded. “It’s crazy.”<br /> City officials have said that federal housing and disability-rights laws classify recovering addicts as disabled and entitled to “reasonable accommodations” for their recovery. <br /> Those laws, city officials say, also prohibit them from asking for addresses of treatment houses because patients’ addresses are part of their medical records, and thus, confidential.<br /> Dorling said Caron has city approval to house seven unrelated adults in the five-bedroom house. He has, he said, approved dozens of such “reasonable accommodation” requests allowing treatment centers to exceed the city law that restricts to three the number of unrelated people living together. Many of those had no address for the proposed facility.<br /> Meanwhile, work crews in late December were busy reroofing and renovating the interior of the yellow Bermuda-style house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. <br /> Across the street, two oceanfront mansions are each on the market for $7.5 million.<br /> Realtor Wendy Overton said she notified the owners of one of the houses about the new neighbors after the zoning hearing. “They’re not happy,” she said.<br /> Neighbors who live on Southways Street, which borders the 740 N. Ocean house to the south, also are concerned.<br /> “It’s scary. I can’t think of anything I’d rather not have,” neighbor Lois Bromley said. “I certainly don’t believe it’s good to have these kinds of people close to children.”<br /> Heidi Sargeant said she is a next door neighbor, has three children and is vehemently opposed to transient housing. She said it has the potential to be unsafe, adding, “Where are we going to put the eight cars?”<br /> The house will have a chef and a masseuse, she said, adding, “Where are these people parking? I’m concerned about the value of our homes. Do you want that next to you? I don’t think so.” <br /></p></div>Coastal residents rally against recovery businesshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coastal-residents-rally-against-recovery-business2012-01-04T22:30:00.000Z2012-01-04T22:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><strong>Caron Treatment Center video: <a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/video/an-overview-of-ocean-drive">Ocean Drive</a> | <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960364894,original{{/staticFileLink}}">Ocean_Drive_brochure.pdf</a></strong></strong></p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Margie Plunkett and Tim Pallesen</strong><br /> <br /> Beach area residents rallied in December in protest of planned luxury beach-side sober houses, filling commission chambers at two meetings and spurring city leaders to scour law in search of changes that will protect residential neighborhoods.<br /> Neighbors protested laws that allow houses in residential neighborhoods to be rented in such a way that dozens of unrelated people can reside there during the course of a year.<br /> Residents argued that the safety and security of their neighborhoods were compromised by allowing sober houses — which they claimed are big business that’s contrary to residential use.<br /> “We’re asking for support for preserving single family neighborhoods,” said Mary Renaud, president of the Beach Property Owners Association.<br /> The city showed its support at its Jan. 3 meeting when commissioners agreed to hire the South Florida law firm, Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske as well as the powerful Washington D.C. legal and lobbying firm, Patton, Boggs and Blow to assess the city’s sober housing ordinances and regulations. A maximum expenditure of $125,000 was approved.<br /> The outcry was sparked when word leaked out that an addiction treatment center had purchased a house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. for $1.6 million and had been approved to house up to seven people while they went through treatment at another location. <br /> Residents pored through a stack of city records and determined that the Pennsylvania-based treatment center, Caron Foundation, sought and had been granted permission for the sober house.<br /> They also learned Caron had made a second “reasonable accommodation” request for another beach side house. <br /> While the application from West Palm Beach attorney James Green did not divulge the intended address, citing confidentiality protections, it did note that the house contained 7,481 square feet of living space.<br /> Through other records, they learned that a six-bedroom, five-bath house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. was on the market for $2.995 million. <br /> It has 7,481 square feet of living space. As of early this month, the house was still on the market.<br /> Andrew Rothermel a spokesman for Caron, a non-profit drug and alcohol abuse treatment agency with a center in Boca Raton, declined to comment on whether Caron had purchased the house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. <br /> Asked if there were any other houses Caron was interested in, he said, “There may be one more.”<br /> Rothermel added: “We’ve been good neighbors in Delray for 20 years,” noting Caron owns a 46-unit apartment building off Lowson Boulevard for patients who need more support. <br /> “We have every intention of maintaining the character of the neighborhood and being good neighbors.”<br /> <br /> <strong>Change sought requiring fewer annual tenants</strong><br /> Within a week of the initial Dec. 13 Commission meeting where the BPOA and other neighbors first protested, the Planning and Zoning board recommended commissioners lower the number of times a home in a single-family residential neighborhood can be rented to twice a year. That was stricter than both the three-times-a-year policy commissioners had asked the board to consider at its Dec. 19 meeting and current law, which allows for six rentals a year.<br /> The number of rentals, however, is only the beginning of review of the complex issue, City Attorney Brian Shutt said, adding there’s much research to do.<br /> Planning and Zoning Chairman Cary Glickstein acknowledged: “We’re not going to accomplish everything tonight. This is a step. We want to draw a line in the sand and build from that.” <br /> Members of the BPOA plus others grew noticeably perturbed at the Dec. 13 meeting when told that an ocean-side sober house had already been approved — but that the location of the property was protected by law and could not be revealed. <br /> Another outcry went up when Mayor Woodie McDuffie said that if sober house properties are kept up, they won’t affect neighbors’ property values. The mayor cut the public hearings short when the crowd’s emotions heated further.<br /> Warned at both meetings against making remarks that could be discriminatory when directed at “sober” or “halfway” houses, residents said they are against “transient” housing in all uses in residential districts, not just those that may be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Fair Housing Amendment.<br /> Treatment centers have successfully argued in federal court that cities cannot discriminate against people with alcohol or drug addictions. In addition, they have maintained that they do not have to disclose locations of sober houses because the addresses of people in treatment are part of their medical records, and thus, confidential.<br /> <br /> <strong>Complex ordinance requires careful review</strong><br /> During the commission meeting, former Commissioner Gary Eliopoulos said that in July 2009 he and other city lawmakers had changed regulations, addressing the number of rentals as well as limiting the number of unrelated adults living in a house to three.<br /> Eliopoulos said there are instances in which the law has been interpreted to mean that each bed or room in a house can be rented six times a year.<br /> “I’m urging this commission to go back and look at that ordinance,” he said. “If we got it wrong, I would urge you to get outside counsel and get it right.”<br /> McDuffie later in the meeting discussed “not rushing it” in reviewing the complex ordinances. He also noted that it could cost the city to boost enforcement to make sure transient housing is following code.<br /> “This is going to send a clear signal that transient housing is going to be scrutinized,” he said.<br /> Heeding those words, the city has hired recently retired Police Lt. Marc Woods to inspect and monitor transient houses throughout the city as well as educate the owners to city regulations.<br /> McDuffie later sent a letter to the local legislative delegation, urging the state to step in to license and regulate the substance-abuse treatment industry.<br /> “We need your help on this issue more than anything else<br /> I have confronted since taking office,” McDuffie wrote. <br /> “Our Village by the Sea receives rave reviews for the beach, Atlantic Avenue, our events and how well it is run, but we have another name that is not so complimentary: The Drug Rehab Capital of the United States.”<br /> During the Planning and Zoning board meeting, Director Paul Dorling said that sober house owners come before his office to seek “reasonable accommodation” to allow more residents than the law permits. He did not recall denying any of the dozens of requests for sober houses throughout the city.<br /> <br /> <strong>Concern about ‘strangers’ and litigation</strong><br /> Resident Bill McCauley said he had been good friends with the owner of the home at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. that apparently was purchased by local attorney Michael Weiner for the Caron Foundation.<br /> “Rick was a great neighbor,” McCauley said, noting he died last year of cancer. Caron plans 48 or more different tenants each year, McCauley said. “How can I have a neighborhood relationship with 48 different strangers?”<br /> The possibility of a lawsuit blanketed discussion at both government meetings, from note of previous Boca Raton litigation that has guided Delray Beach policy over concerns of potential suits from neighbors or sober home operators. <br /> In that vein, attorney Weiner had a court reporter and videographer at the Dec. 19 Planning and Zoning meeting. <br /> Residents urged officials not to be swayed by the threat of a lawsuit. <br /> “There are going to be lawsuits no matter what,” said resident and lawyer Scott Richman, explaining that the board’s actions shouldn’t be formulated merely to avoid a suit. “First thing: You need to protect the citizens.”<br /> Warned Caron’s Rothermel: other cities have lost lawsuits when they opposed similar requests for sober houses in residential neighborhoods. <br /> “They suffered in court and spent a tremendous amount of money fighting it.” </p></div>Delray Beach: ‘Village’ or ‘Drug Rehab Capital’ by the Sea?https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-village-or-drug-rehab-capital-by-the-sea2012-01-04T18:59:19.000Z2012-01-04T18:59:19.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b>By Margie Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p><span><b>and Tim Pallesen</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p>Delray Beach coastal residents rallied in December in protest of planned luxury beach-side sober houses, filling commission chambers at two meetings and spurring city leaders to scour law in search of changes that will protect single-family residential neighborhoods.</p>
<p>The controversy is a familiar one in Boca Raton, which, following an outcry from residents, passed ordinances in 2002 restricting sober houses to areas of the city zoned for hospitals or motels. The city was sued by the owners of the sober houses and in 2007 a federal judge struck down the ordinances, saying they were discriminatory.</p>
<p>In Delray Beach last month, neighbors protested laws that allow houses in residential neighborhoods to be rented in such a way that dozens of unrelated people can reside there during the course of a year.</p>
<p>Residents argued that the safety and security of their neighborhoods were compromised by allowing sober houses, which they claimed is a big business contrary to residential use.</p>
<p>“We’re asking for support for preserving single-family neighborhoods,” said Mary Renaud, president of the Beach Property Owners’ Association.</p>
<p>The outcry in Delray Beach was sparked when word leaked out that Caron Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based drug and alcohol addiction treatment center, had purchased a house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. for $1.6 million and had been approved to house up to seven people while they went through treatment. </p>
<p>Andrew Rothermel, a spokesman for Caron, a nonprofit treatment agency with a center in Boca Raton, declined to comment on whether Caron had purchased the house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. </p>
<p>Rothermel said: “We’ve been good neighbors in Delray for 20 years,” noting Caron owns a 46-unit apartment building off Lowson Boulevard for patients who need more support. </p>
<p>“We have every intention of maintaining the character of the neighborhood and being good neighbors.”</p>
<p>Within a week of the initial Dec. 13 commission meeting where the BPOA and other neighbors first protested, the Planning and Zoning board recommended commissioners lower the number of times a home in a single-family residential neighborhood can be rented to twice a year. That was stricter than both the three-times-a-year policy commissioners had asked the board to consider at its Dec. 19 meeting and current law, which allows for six rentals a year.</p>
<p>Planning and Zoning Chairman Cary Glickstein acknowledged: “We’re not going to accomplish everything tonight. This is a step. We want to draw a line in the sand and build from that.” </p>
<p>BPOA members plus others grew noticeably perturbed at the Dec. 13 meeting when told that an ocean-side sober house had already been approved — but that the name and location were protected by law and would not be revealed. </p>
<p>Treatment centers have successfully argued in federal court that cities cannot discriminate against people with alcohol or drug addictions. In addition, they have maintained that they do not have to disclose locations of sober houses because the addresses of people in treatment are part of their medical records, and thus, confidential.</p>
<p>During the commission meeting, former Commissioner Gary Eliopoulos said that in July 2009 he and other city lawmakers had changed regulations, addressing the number of rentals as well as limiting the number of unrelated adults living in a house to three.</p>
<p>Eliopoulos said there are instances in which the law has been interpreted to mean that each bed or room in a house can be rented six times a year.</p>
<p>“I’m urging this commission to go back and look at that ordinance,” he said. “If we got it wrong, I would urge you to get outside counsel and get it right. There’s no reason we have to tolerate this.”</p>
<p>Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie later sent a letter to local state lawmakers, urging the state to step in to license and regulate the substance-abuse treatment industry.</p>
<p>“We need your help on this issue more than anything else I have confronted since taking office,” McDuffie wrote. </p>
<p>“Our Village by the Sea receives rave reviews for the beach, Atlantic Avenue, our events and how well it is run, but we have another name that is not so complimentary: The Drug Rehab Capital of the United States.”</p>
<p>Heidi Sargeant said she is a next-door neighbor, has three children and is vehemently opposed to transient housing. She said it has the potential to be unsafe, adding, “Where are we going to put the eight cars?”</p>
<p>The house will have a chef and a masseuse, she said, adding, “Where are these people parking? I’m concerned about the value of our homes. Do you want that next to you? I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>The possibility of a lawsuit blanketed discussion at both government meetings, noting previous Boca Raton litigation that has guided Delray Beach policy over concerns of potential suits from neighbors or sober-home operators. </p>
<p>Residents urged officials not to be swayed by the threat of a lawsuit. </p>
<p>“There are going to be lawsuits no matter what,” said resident and lawyer Scott Richman, explaining that the board’s actions shouldn’t be formulated merely to avoid a suit. “First thing: You need to protect the citizens.”</p>
<p>Warned Caron’s Rothermel: Other cities have lost lawsuits when they opposed similar requests for sober houses in residential neighborhoods. </p>
<p>“They suffered in court and spent a tremendous amount of money fighting it.” </p></div>Delray Beach: Island residents rally against recovery business in neighborhoodhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-island-residents-rally-against-recovery-business-in-2011-12-29T19:00:00.000Z2011-12-29T19:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p>By Margie Plunkett and Tim Pallesen</p>
<p> Beach area residents rallied in protest of planned luxury beachside sober houses in December, filling commission chambers at two meetings and spurring city leaders to scour law in search of changes that will protect residential neighborhoods.</p>
<p> Neighbors protested laws that allow houses in residential neighborhoods to be rented in such a way that dozens of unrelated people can reside there during the course of a year.</p>
<p> Residents argued that the safety and security of their neighborhoods were compromised by allowing sober houses — which they claimed is big business that’s contrary to residential use.</p>
<p> “We’re asking for support for preserving single-family neighborhoods,” said Mary Renaud, president of the Beach Property Owners’ Association.</p>
<p> The outcry was sparked when word leaked out that a Pennsylvania-based addiction treatment center had purchased a house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. for $1.6 million and been approved to house up to seven people while they went through treatment.</p>
<p> Owners of beach side homes pored through a stack of city records and determined that the treatment center, Caron Foundation, had made a "reasonable accommodation" request for a second beach side house.</p>
<p> While the application from West Palm Beach attorney James Green did not divulge the intended address, citing confidentiality issues, it did note that the house contained 7,481 square feet of living space.</p>
<p> Through other records, they learned that a six-bedroom, five-bath house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. was on the market for $2.995 million. </p>
<p> It has 7,481 square feet of living space. As of late December, the house was still on the market.</p>
<p> Andrew Rothermel, a spokesman for Caron, a nonprofit drug and alcohol abuse treatment agency with a center in Boca Raton, declined to comment on whether Caron had purchased the house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. Asked if there were any other houses Caron was interested in, he said, “There may be one more.”</p>
<p> Rothermel added: “We’ve been good neighbors in Delray for 20 years,” noting Caron owns a 46-unit apartment building off Lowson Boulevard for clients who need more support.</p>
<p> “We have every intention of maintaining the character of the neighborhood and being good neighbors.”</p>
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<p><b>Change sought requiring fewer annual tenants</b></p>
<p> Within a week of the initial Dec. 13 commission meeting where the BPOA and other neighbors first protested, the Planning and Zoning board recommended commissioners lower the number of times a home in a residential neighborhood can be rented to twice a year. That was stricter than both the three-times-a-year policy commissioners had asked the board to consider at its Dec. 19 meeting and current law, which allows for six rentals a year.</p>
<p> The number of rentals, however, is only the beginning of review of the complex issue, City Attorney Brian Schutt said, adding there’s much research to do.</p>
<p> Planning and Zoning Chairman Cary Glickstein acknowledged: “We’re not going to accomplish everything tonight. This is a step. We want to draw a line in the sand and build from that.”</p>
<p> Members of the Beach Property Owners’ Association plus others grew noticeably perturbed at the Dec. 13 meeting when told that an oceanside sober house had already been approved — but that the name and location of the property were protected by law and would not be revealed.</p>
<p> Another outcry went up when Mayor Woodie McDuffie said that if sober house properties are kept up, they won’t affect neighbors’ property values.</p>
<p> The mayor cut the public hearings short when the crowd’s emotions heated further.</p>
<p> Warned at both meetings against making remarks that could be discriminatory when directed at “sober” or “halfway” houses, residents said they are against “transient” housing in all uses in residential districts, not just those that may be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Fair Housing Amendment.</p>
<p> Treatment centers have successfully argued in federal court that cities cannot discriminate against people with alcohol or drug addictions. In addition, locations of sober houses do not have to be disclosed by the health care provider because the addresses of people in treatment are part of their medical records, and thus, confidential.</p>
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<p><b>Complex ordinance requires careful review</b></p>
<p> During the commission meeting, former Commissioner Gary Eliopoulos said that in July 2009 he and other city lawmakers had changed regulations, addressing the number of rentals as well as limiting the number of unrelated adults living in a house to three.</p>
<p> Eliopoulos said there are instances in which the law has been interpreted to mean that each bed or room in a house can be rented six times a year.</p>
<p> “I’m urging this commission to go back and look at that ordinance,” he said. “If we got it wrong, I would urge you to get outside counsel and get it right. There’s no reason we have to tolerate this.”</p>
<p> McDuffie later in the meeting discussed “not rushing it” in reviewing the complex ordinances. He also noted that it could cost the city to boost enforcement to make sure transient housing is following code.</p>
<p> “This is going to send a clear signal that transient housing is going to be scrutinized,” he said.</p>
<p> Heeding those words, the city is planning to hire recently retired Police Lt. Marc Woods to help with license compliance and educating owners of transient housing throughout the city.</p>
<p> McDuffie later sent a letter to members of the local legislative delegation, urging the state to step in to license and regulate the substance-abuse treatment industry.</p>
<p> “We need your help on this issue more than anything else I have confronted since taking office,” McDuffie wrote.</p>
<p> “Our Village by the Sea receives rave reviews for the beach, Atlantic Avenue, our events and how well it is run, but we have another name that is not so complimentary: The Drug Rehab Capital of the United States.”</p>
<p> During the Planning and Zoning board meeting, Director Paul Dorling said that housing owners come before his office to ask for “reasonable accommodation” to allow more residents than the law permits. He did not recall denying any of the dozens of requests for sober houses throughout the city.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Concern about ‘strangers’ and employee parking</b></p>
<p> Resident Bill McCauley said he had been good friends with the owner of the home at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. that apparently was purchased by attorney Michael Weiner for the Caron Foundation.</p>
<p> “Rick was a great neighbor,” McCauley said, noting he died last year of cancer. Caron plans 48 or more different tenants each year, McCauley said. “How can I have a neighborhood relationship with 48 different strangers?”</p>
<p> Heidi Sargeant said she is a next door neighbor, has three children and is vehemently opposed to transient housing. She said it has the potential to be unsafe, adding, “Where are we going to put the eight cars?”</p>
<p> The house will have a chef and a masseuse, she said, adding, “Where are these people parking? I’m concerned about the value of our homes. Do you want that next to you? I don’t think so.”</p>
<p> The possibility of a lawsuit blanketed discussion at both government meetings, from note of previous Boca Raton litigation that has guided Delray Beach policy over concerns of potential suits from neighbors or sober home operators.</p>
<p> In that vein, attorney Weiner brought a court reporter and videographer to record the Dec. 19 Planning and Zoning meeting. </p>
<p> Residents urged officials not to be swayed by the threat of a lawsuit.</p>
<p> “There are going to be lawsuits no matter what,” said resident and lawyer Scott Richman, explaining that the board’s actions shouldn’t be formulated merely to avoid a suit. “First thing: You need to protect the citizens.”</p>
<p> Resident Mark Fields suggested that Planning and Zoning not move too quickly and that the city should hire “excellent” outside counsel. “If you’re going to do something, do it right and fairly,” he said.</p>
<p> Warned Caron’s Rothermel: Other cities have lost lawsuits when they opposed similar requests for sober houses in residential neighborhoods.</p>
<p> “They suffered in court and spent a tremendous amount of money fighting it.”</p></div>