Camas eyes zoning limits on drug rehabs

A proposal that would severely limit where drug and alcohol treatment and recovery centers – as well as transitional “sober living” homes – can operate in the city of Camas will soon make its way to the Camas City Council.

The Camas Planning Commission held a public hearing on the issue on Jan. 19, and unanimously agreed to pass the proposed code changes on to the city council for their consideration.

If the city council approves the city code changes OK’d by the planning commissioners, any facility functioning “as a residence, day-treatment facility or combination” of the two that “provides support services including, but not limited to, counseling, rehabilitation, and medical supervision for the need of drug or alcohol treatment” would be prevented from operating within the city’s single-family residential, multi-family residential, mixed-use, neighborhood commercial and downtown commercial zones.

The city also would prohibit such facilities from operating “within 1,000 feet of public and private schools, public parks, public libraries, other (drug and alcohol treatment facilities), or similar uses” under the proposed code changes.

The commissioners also asked city staff to include “sober living homes” — which allow people in recovery to live in a supportive, drug- and alcohol-free group setting — to the proposed code changes, and approved a code change excluding substance abuse treatment facilities from being considered under the city’s definition of a “nursing, rest or convalescent home.”

Camas Planning Manager Robert Maul told planning commissioners in November 2021, that city officials had asked city staff to look into the issue. Maul later clarified that Mayor Steve Hogan, then a city council member, asked in April 2021 if staff could look into the issue of zoning and substance abuse treatment facilities.

“We were formerly directed to start work on a proposed code change by then-Mayor Ellen Burton and Interim City Administrator Jeff Swanson in the early fall (2021),” Maul said. “The delay was … based on the status of the lawsuit at the time.”

“We were directed by (the city) council to look at language for drug and alcohol detox facilities,” Maul told planning commissioners during the commission’s Nov. 16, 2021, meeting.

He added then that the city was still in litigation over a proposed drug and alcohol facility – the Discover Recovery facility that was granted a conditional-use permit to operate in Camas’ Prune Hill residential neighborhood in the site of a former assisted living home and that recently had this decision upheld by a Clark County Superior Court judge – so staff could not discuss that project with planning commissioners, but that city officials wanted to “make sure siting of future (drug and alcohol treatment) facilities are not next to schools, parks, things like that.”

The state considers drug and alcohol treatment centers to be “essential facilities” so the city could not ban them outright, Maul told the commissioners.

“We are, by law, required to provide for essential facilities,” Maul said in November 2021. “We can’t prohibit via no possibility through zoning.”

Some of the planning commissioners seemed to agree with Camas residents who have contended, without proof, that patients seeking treatment at drug and alcohol recovery centers pose a danger to children in nearby schools.

“I think it’s important that we take our time with this,” Camas Planning Commissioner Geoerl Niles, a pastor and executive director of Ascend International Ministries, said during the commission’s November 2021 meeting. “We have the ability to look at something that’s come to light … we’re dealing with a subject people have been very voiceful and want to provide in our city, but not on the doorsteps of where it could be dangerous. We have to take that very carefully.”

Other commissioners seemed hesitant to ban the facilities from so many of the city’s zones.

“I totally support not having (drug treatment centers) around any schools, but want to make sure that zoning is not (so) limited that there’s no way to have this facility in town,” Planning Commissioner Mahsa Eshghi commented during the Nov. 16, 2021, meeting. “It’s good to add limitation(s) and make sure they’re not in certain areas, but want to make sure we have some areas that those centers can be open.”

A few weeks later, during the planning commission’s Dec. 21, 2021, meeting, Eshgi brought the issue up once more.

“With the limited areas we have, some are so expensive I would say it’s not affordable for these types of facilities to be built in these areas,” she said. “I think we should think about where we want that facility to be. Maybe think about some residential, too. To me, I think business parks or light industrial are good areas for this facility. They’re more affordable, more outside or residential or school zoning. But there are not that many.”

As written, the city would ban the facilities and sober living homes from residential areas, mixed-use zones and some commercial zones, and would require a conditional-use permit in other zones, including the city’s community and regional commercial, business park, light industrial/business park, light industrial and heavy industrial zones.

At the planning commission’s public hearing on the code changes, held Jan. 19, attorney Brian Lewallen, the lawyer representing the Dorothy Fox Safety Alliance in its nearly yearlong fight against the 15-bed Discover Recovery drug and alcohol treatment center hoping to operate in Camas’ Prune Hill, spoke in favor of the proposed code changes, and urged planning commissioners to change the wording in its proposed code amendment from “substance abuse treatment centers” to “residential treatment facilities” and to include sober living homes and transitional homes for people in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse to its proposed code changes.

“I would encourage the commission to consider putting (sober living homes) in the definition,” Lewallen said. “That is a use that will be coming our way … consider putting (sober living homes and transitional housing) in to make sure they’re outside the 1,000-foot buffer.”

Niles agreed.

“Transitional housing is becoming more and more prevalent in our society,” Niles said. “We don’t want to deal with this in a year.”

In the end, the planning commissioners voted to send the proposed code changes to the city council.

Maul said city staff is still researching the proposed code changes and preparing its staff report for the city council. He added that planning staff will likely bring the proposed changes to the Camas City Council during the council’s March 7 work session. The city council will hold a public hearing on the matter before voting on the proposed code changes.

Federal rules protect people in recovery for drugs, alcohol

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), “people with addiction to alcohol and people in recovery from opioid and substance use” are considered people with disabilities and are protected under the federal ADA, as well as the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA).

In 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a joint statement, which stated that group homes, often referred to as sober living homes, “occupied by persons in recovery from alcohol or substance abuse, who are persons with disabilities under the Act” are protected from discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

“Discrimination may be intentional,” the DOJ and HUD said in their joint statement. “For example, a locality might pass an ordinance prohibiting group homes in single-family neighborhoods or prohibiting group homes for persons with certain disabilities. These ordinances are facially discriminatory, in violation of the Act.”

A local government that “blocks a group home or denies a reasonable accommodation request because of neighbors’ stereotypical fears or prejudices about persons with disabilities” also would be in violation of federal law, according to the DOJ and HUD statement.

Asked by The Post-Record if passing code changes that single out people in recovery for drug and alcohol abuse might put the city in danger of federal discrimination lawsuits, Maul said city staff are reviewing the additions made during the Jan. 19 planning commission meeting to ensure they would not violate state or federal laws.

“Staff’s role is to make sure any proposed changes are compliant with state and federal regulations,” Maul told The Post-Record in a Feb. 4 email. “Accordingly, we then provide recommendations to be considered by the City Council. Staff would never knowingly advocate for anything that would be discriminatory or illegal.”

City staff looks to other jurisdictions’ codes, addresses 12-step programs

In their research into restrictions on drug and alcohol treatment centers, Camas planners look to other Washington jurisdictions for guidance.

In Vancouver, the city considers a substance abuse facility a “medical center” and prohibits medical centers from operating in low-density residential zones, but allows them as a conditional use in high-density residential areas.

In Clark County, there is a code section for “opiate substance facilities,” Maul said, which requires a conditional-use permit for commercial zones and does not permit within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and libraries.

The city of Tacoma prohibits “detox centers” in commercial zones and requires a conditional-use permit in residential and mixed-use zones.

“Most jurisdictions do not specifically address substance abuse facilities,” city of Camas staff writes in its findings. “Many of their definitions and use tables include nursing/rest/convalescent homes, medical centers and other uses of this nature.”

The staff’s research found that two Washington jurisdictions – Clark County and the city of Ferndale – “have spacial distancing requirements” that prohibit substance abuse treatment facilities within a certain distance of schools, parks and libraries.

Asked if the code change proposals, which mention “day-treatment” and “counseling” services might prohibit 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous – which often take place in churches and near public and private schools – from operating under the same narrow restrictions being imposed on other drug and alcohol treatment facilities, Maul said he did not believe those types of substance abuse recovery programs would be in jeopardy.

“I do not see 12 step programs being at risk,” Maul told The Post-Record this week. “The proposed changes to the code are to address the citing of new, in-patient care for substance abuse patients and most typically in residence. (12-step programs) are usually an hour or two long, medications are not provided and … they are safe spaces for people to talk through their respective challenges to work towards recovery. Churches in particular have protections for the community services they provide that also include housing of the homeless, day warming centers, family resource, addiction counseling, etc. The intent of the code change is not to adversely impact any of those (services).”

To learn more about the Camas Planning Commission’s proposed code changes, visit cityofcamas.us/meetings and click on the agendas and videos for the planning commission’s meetings on Nov. 16, 2021; Dec. 21, 2021; and Jan. 19, 2022.and re