Rehab Neighbors Begin Efforts to Change State Law on the Centers

• Critics Contend Exisiting Legislation Is Being Misused and Impacts Communities Where Facilities Have Proliferated

BY ANNE SOBLE

Whether it’s due to the huge number of postings on the Internet, or the duplicative punch lines in the monologues of talk show hosts, Malibu has become synonymous with substance abuse rehabilitation. Local accomplishments run a distant second to the public fascination and put-down of the addictions of people often dubbed celebrities, many of whom are famous solely because their penchant for self-driven publicity.
A growing number of Malibu residents—especially those in the Trancas area—say their neighborhoods have been overrun by rehab houses. They say that their numerous requests to the City of Malibu to do something about these concerns have led nowhere. According to the rehab critics, the city of 13,000 residents currently has about 50 rehab houses.
Rehab critics contend that even existing state law states that facilities should serve the local community in which they are located, but Malibu rehab houses advertise for a worldwide clientele.
Critics raise the issue of whether this international component and the facilities’ five-and-six-figure check-in rates violate the spirit, if not the letter, of laws originally designed to prevent local governments from overtly discriminating against addiction programs being located in residential areas. In addition, some owners of rehab facilities are generous political campaign contributors and have high-powered lobbyists to represent their cause in Sacramento.
City of Malibu officials have not been outspoken about the issue, demurring for the most part and stating that municipal hands are tied because these state laws exempt rehab facilities from local zoning codes and other restrictions that would curtail similar use of private residential dwellings located next door to them.
In testimony before the city council, residents have claimed that rehab center patients have set fires, robbed pharmacies and harassed neighbors.
The residents also complain that staff parking near rehab homes is creating a safety hazard. They are also concerned about the impact of 20 or more employees using wastewater facilities designed for single-family use.
This loose coalition of residents said they decided that remaining low-key about their concerns was no longer an option, and they have produced and posted a YouTube video that has attracted widespread media attention from coast to coast.
As one of the residents, Cindy Vandor, said in a message accompanying a link of the video sent to the Malibu Surfside News, “[To the rest of the world] they’re the rich and famous like Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears. To us, they’re the drug addicts, sex addicts, and alcoholics whose rehab houses are ruining our neighborhoods.”
Noting that Malibuites are joining ranks with other communities with similar disproportionate numbers of rehab centers, Vandor states: “We are the residents of Malibu, Marin County, Newport Beach, Napa, and other California communities whose neighborhoods are being overrun by rehab houses.”
Vandor, an activist concerned with limiting development of Trancas Canyon Park, said “The City of Malibu is building a playground across the street from five rehab houses. Frightened local parents and residents want the City of Malibu to stop this nightmare of a park.”
Members of the group said they worked with Alchemy Studios to produce this video “to call attention to the life-threatening problems caused by rehab houses.” The link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFbQU8gewOQ
The critics say, “Our goal is to get legislation enacted and enforced to restrict the proliferation and clustering of rehab houses.”