City offers possible zoning changes as it hears neighbors
Posted by admin on March 4, 2008 under Pioneer Press, St. Paul | 
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Sourced from TwinCities.com
By Alex Friedrich
Article Last Updated: 03/04/2008 12:23:18 AM CST
Problems with poorly run sober houses have riled people in a number of St. Paul neighborhoods, and Monday the city discussed its first shot at regulating the facilities.
At a Summit-University community center, planning officials heard residents sound off on proposed zoning ordinance amendments designed to handle the houses. In the meantime, the city maintains a de facto moratorium on them.
The changes are supposed to balance the needs of sober-house inhabitants — recovering alcoholics and addicts who are getting their lives back together — and the communities in which they live.
“We want to make sure the structures are safe, integrate them into neighborhoods and make sure we address the larger impacts on the neighborhoods,” city planner Luis Pereira said.
St. Paul has almost three dozen registered sober houses, he said, but residents said many others operate “under the radar.”
Many houses comprise a handful of recovering substance abusers who decide to live together and support each other. Others are larger operations run by landlords for a profit.
To live in a house, alcoholics must not drink and must be financially self-supporting, among other things.
The houses have been around for decades, and many neighborhood residents never know they’re there.
But some people have complained they’re seeing more and more in their communities — sometimes more than one on a block. And because federal laws consider the residents disabled, more of them can live in a house than is normally allowed.
Critics said that creates a number of problems, especially when the sober houses are poorly run.
At the forum, neighbors painted a picture of absent landlords, poor upkeep, lots of noise and huge parking crunches.
“This is public safety stuff that the city has to get a handle on,” said 55-year-old Marshall Avenue resident Gary Carlson.
Among other things, neighbors said they want the city to keep better tabs on sober houses, better screen those who run them, reduce the density of the houses and resolve parking problems.
But sober-house supporters said they shouldn’t be singled out and that they draw fewer police visits than college “party houses.”
Most residents in sober houses are productive and law-abiding, supporters said, and need the facilities to make a transition to mainstream life.
“I owe my life to sober housing,” said David Mott, a 23-year-old sober-house resident who said he’ll earn a degree in accounting next year.
John Curtiss, of the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes, cautioned against suggestions to identify all the facilities in the city or to decide where a law-abiding recovering alcoholic or addict is allowed to live.
“It’s a scary thing to hear that kind of thing in a community,” he said.
The proposed zoning amendments, which stemmed from a city study of sober housing, would still permit the facilities in any area that allows residential use. And they would grandfather in existing sober houses that are legal.
Among other things, the amendments call for:
– 1 1/2 off-street parking spaces per dwelling unit.
– A parking plan for each sober house.
– Information from each sober-house operator, which would include the number of residents, bedrooms and bathrooms.
– A “modest” distance requirement between new sober houses with seven or more residents.
– A minimum lot size for those with six or more residents.
The city will hold at least two more public hearings on the matter, and Pereira said officials hope to bring a draft ordinance to the Planning Commission this spring.