Planning Commission Schedules Hearing on Facility for Troubled Teenagers

The Azusa City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing May 28 on whether to revoke a permit that would allow a group home for troubled teenagers--which is being evicted from space at UC Irvine Medical Center--to open next month on Sierra Madre Avenue.

Any city Planning Commission decision about the future of the 53-bed home could be appealed to the full five-member council. Meanwhile, state licensing officials have not yet given their approval to the home, which would house emotionally disturbed teenagers.

The council decided to reconsider the conditional use permit after a report in The Times this week detailed how the home is being evicted by medical center officials, who say the residents are “out of control.” Police have been called to the city of Orange site more than 200 times.

In addition, council members said they will consider placing a moratorium on such facilities in certain commercial areas.

“If the record at Irvine is replicated here, we would have a regular little crime nest up on the hill,” Councilman Dick Stanford said in an interview Tuesday.

But Robert M. Myers, the firm’s attorney, said state and federal laws prevent cities from blocking facilities for the mentally disturbed and that he doubts the firm will receive a fair hearing. He said the firm is considering options that include seeking a court order to block the hearing or suing the city if it revokes the permit.

“It is very unsettling to see government officials openly violate the law,” he said.

In March, the Azusa council approved a permit for the home. It reversed a Planning Commission decision against the project after the home threatened to sue.

However, Azusa’s city attorney said the city can reconsider the issue because a technical condition of the permit has been violated--the owner of the property failed to record the permit with the county registrar-recorder within a month.