Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Extra electricity


needed for downtown restaurants


With more and more restaurants opening in Old Towne Orange,


the available electrical power to run ovens, dishwashers, refrigerators and lighting is spread thin. The owner at 155 N. Glassell Street intends to lease to a new restau-


rant, The Pizza Press. To serve the attendant need for more electricity, Southern California Edison proposes to install an underground conduit in the alley behind the property connecting to a new above-ground transformer in the parking lot planter. Neither installation will impede


traffic or cause the loss of parking spaces. SCE has the right to install its


lines and equipment in, under, and over public streets and sidewalks, but two easements are necessary for this project.


Foothills Sentry


Page 3


Expansion of neighborhood group homes denied – again


The Orange Planning Commission upheld the


city’s denial of Newport Academy’s request to add beds to a rehab facility in Orange Park Acres during an emotionally charged meeting, Feb. 2. Newport Academy operates a boys’ home on


Hunter’s Way and a girls’ home on Ranch Wood Trail. Both serve drug-addicted or troubled teen- agers. California state law allows such facilities to exist in residential neighborhoods, as long as they are limited to six beds. Late last year the academy sought approval from


Orange to expand its Hunter’s Way home to 12 beds and its Ranch Wood Trail residence to eight. The city said “no,” because under the municipal code, the expanded homes would be considered board- ing houses, which aren’t allowed in single-family neighborhoods. Newport Academy appealed the decision, claim-


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ing that the boarding house label didn’t apply, that the city was required to accommodate the housing needs of handicapped individuals, that rehab facili- ties of its ilk were sorely needed, that allowing the increase would not set a precedent, and that both homes were “good neighbors” in the community.


Six is the limit City staff countered those assertions, noting that


by municipal code definition, 12 and eight-bed fa- cilities are boarding houses, that the expansion was not needed to support a “particular” handicapped person, and that increased capacity violated the city’s General Plan and OPA’s Specific Plan. Resi- dents of Hunter’s Way and Ranch Wood Trail were on hand to discredit the applicant’s “good neighbor” claim. Commissioner Steiner started off the discussion


with the disclosure that he himself had operated nine homes for troubled youth throughout Califor- nia, in addition to founding Orangewood Children’s Home. He explained that he clearly understood the value of, and need for, “home-like” environments for recovering youth, but said that although he was sympathetic to Newport Academy, it would not af- fect his decision. “I can be fair,” he said.


What was, in essence, a simple land-use decision


– should an exception to the municipal code be grant- ed? – escalated into a debate over who’s handicapped and who isn’t, whether Newport Academy was more into the cash than counseling, the definition of “sin- gle-housekeeping unit,” and what exactly constitutes a good neighbor? Newport Academy’s representative Phillip Greer


argued that, even with more beds, the rehab homes were single housekeeping units because they had only one kitchen. Following that logic, resident Dave Swoish said the Anaheim Hilton would be a home be- cause it has one kitchen.


Welcome home Swoish was one of about 15 Newport Academy


neighbors who spoke of parking problems, unwanted traffic on narrow streets, the transient nature of the homes’ tenants, calls to police, and loud strangers walking up and down the streets. All stressed the dis- ruption caused by the six-bed facilities, and noted that with additional beds, it could only get worse. Despite Greer’s insistence that more beds would


make no difference, and that neighbors were welcome to stop by and inspect the premises at any time, the commissioners were not swayed, and upheld the letter of the municipal code. The unanimous vote to deny the appeal actually ap-


plied only to the first of four filed by Newport Acad- emy. Two appeals of city staff decisions related to the home on Hunter’s Way; two pertained to Ranch Wood Trail. With the first Hunter’s Way appeal resoundingly re-


jected, Greer opted to pull the rest of them from the agenda. The commission agreed to defer those items until “a later undetermined date.”


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