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Planning Commission advances zoning language to allow regulated group homes, adds buffers and security requirements
Summary
After reviewing attorney guidance that outright bans may violate the ADA and Fair Housing Act, the commission voted to send zoning amendments to public hearing that would allow licensed group homes while adding spacing buffers, licensing and law-enforcement-approved security-plan requirements for substance-abuse group homes.
The Sunset Planning Commission on April 9 advanced proposed zoning amendments to allow and regulate group homes in residential zones, voting to send the draft to a public hearing with specific additions for schools, commercial daycares and houses of worship for substance-abuse facilities.
Sarah, a city staff member, read the city attorney's summary to the commission: "Group homes are governed by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act," she said, adding that "an outright prohibition on group homes is likely illegal" but "the city is within its rights to regulate group homes so long as those regulations provide for a reasonable accommodation." Commissioners used that legal guidance as the framework for discussing what regulations would survive legal challenge.
Discussion centered on practical controls the city could use without running afoul of federal law: minimum spacing between facilities (the draft suggested 2,000 feet between such facilities), buffers from schools and daycare centers (commissioners discussed 1,000- to 2,000-foot options), limits on conversions in multifamily/townhome areas, requirements that facilities be licensed or certified by DHS or the state Department of Health and a requirement for a security plan "satisfactory to local law enforcement." Sarah noted the draft would require the facility to provide a certified copy of its state license to the city and that a facility's approval would terminate if its license were revoked.
Commissioners also debated whether including churches and commercial daycare in buffer rules would be legally defensible and how those buffers would affect small areas of the city where those facilities are common. Several members raised enforcement and public-safety concerns, citing local complaints about a nearby short-term hotel sometimes used as housing and higher police call volume in that area.
A motion to send the zoning amendments to public hearing with the additions of schools, commercial daycare and house-of-worship language for substance-abuse facilities passed on a recorded voice vote at the meeting. Staff will return the revised draft to the attorney for final review before publication of a hearing notice.
