Residents press La Mesa council on alleged unlicensed group home and recurring garden water outages

Residents at the March 10 meeting raised two neighborhood issues: an alleged unlicensed recovery home on Bellflower Drive and chronic water outages at the La Mesa Community Garden.

Barbie Wheeler, speaking for residents on Bellflower Drive, said a property operated by Richard Evans advertised a drug-recovery program without appropriate licensing; she told council the Department of Health Care Services issued a cease-and-desist over advertising but later approved the operator's license application. Wheeler asked the city to review zoning and enforcement under policy LU-2.2-3 and to identify the county or state official who approved the license.

Brian McNes, a longtime community garden volunteer, told council the garden's water supply had been off nine days in a row and that volunteers have tracked 209 outages totaling about 120 days without garden water since Nov. 30, 2022; he asked the city to restore reliable water service during the planting season and offered documentation of outage dates.

Council did not take formal action on either item during the meeting. Staff follow-up is implied: Wheeler requested the name of the Department of Health Care Services staffer who approved a license and asked the council to check zoning compliance; McNes asked staff to restore consistent water service to the community garden and to review the outage log he offered to provide.

These matters were raised during public comment and were not the subject of council votes at this meeting.