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Injunction Sought on Calle de Blas Addiction Treatment |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Monday, 25 January 2010 |
A group home for persons with addictions has operated near the top of
Calle de Blas since November without a Village business license or
approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
But in early January, Village officials sought a court order to close
it down, citing disturbances that have occurred and “the potential for
serious, irreparable personal injury or even death to those living in
the neighborhood.”
Village Attorney John Appel filed an application for preliminary
injunction against three women doing business as Wilson Residential
Care Services which leased the home at 702 Calle de Blas.
Documents filed with the 13th Judicial District Court January 4 stated
that Corrales rescue personnel have been threatened and assaulted by
residents at the group home when responding to calls related to drug
overdoses. “When emergency personnel have been called to the property
to treat victims of drug overdose, the emergency personnel have been
threatened and assaulted by residents,” the Village’s complaint states.
It adds: “The residents, being uncontrolled, freely leave the property
and wander about the neighborhood at will, individually or in groups,
frequently creating a disturbance and reasonably causing other
residents to fear for their safety and security.”
Several neighbors came to the December 15 Village Council meeting to
demand action to shut down the group home. In early December, a
neighbor contacted Corrales Comment to say “The residents of the
half-way house have put fear into all of the neighbors to where
parents will not let children walk out of their yards because the
half-way residents are often on the street and have been observed
smoking marijuana.”
Repeated calls to the main office of Wilson Residential Care Services and to Denice Wilson were not returned as of press time.
In his complaint, Appel asked the court to take action against
operators of the group home. “The defendants have undertaken to operate
a ‘transitional living facility’ for convicted criminals, allegedly
suffering from a mental condition which the defendants describe as
‘axes,’ in a manner that is clearly inconsistent with the Village’s
zoning code and that violates the right of their neighbors to the
peaceful use and enjoyment of their own homes and properties.
“Defendants have entirely failed to control, or even maintain a
semblance of control, over the home’s residents, who have repeatedly
engaged in illegal and disruptive activities both on and off the
property….
“In the two months that the defendants have engaged in these
activities, the Village’s emergency personnel and police have been
frequently called to defendant’s property to address multiple drug
overdoses, violence and threats of violence among the residents and
disturbances to the peace of the neighbors.”
Appel’s court filings are careful not to assert that group homes to
treat addictions are not allowed in Corrales. His wording, and existing
Village ordinances, are meant to steer clear of previous court rulings
around the country that protect the operation of treatment centers in
residential settings.
Appel pointed out that Village ordinance does allow for group homes for
up to five residents— but only after the operators of such facilities
have sought and gained approvals from the Planning and Zoning
Commission. “Defendants, upon application with supporting
documentation, proof of state licensure and approval by the Planning
and Zoning Commission, could also operate a group home (as defined in
the Village Code) for up to five residents.”
But the people running Wilson Residential Care Services have not even sought approval, Appel asserted.
“The Village Code is in fact crafted so as to permit the operation of
such facilities, even in a single-family neighborhood, subject to
reasonable regulatory controls and conditions to ensure that they do
not constitute an undue burden or a threat to the health, safety and
welfare of other citizens.
“Here, the defendants have not exhibited even the slightest
consideration for the health, safety and welfare of their neighbors,
nor even (as shown more fully below) compliance with the most
fundamental regulatory requirements for operation of a business in the
Village.”
Later it states that the defendants “have flagrantly failed and
directly refused to comply with even the most basic and obvious of
applicable State statues and the ordinances of the Village.”
Corrales went through a similar battle more than a decade ago when a
Taos-area doctor tried to set up an addiction treatment facility here.
It was then that Village officials and their attorneys re-vamped the
ordinances here to allow such residential treatment facilities here as
long as no more than five patients were occupying the home, the
operators had a Village business license and other requirements were
met. |
