Written by Patricia A. Scheyer, LINKnky contributor
The new mayor of Lakeside Park was sworn in to office last Monday, and then city council’s business returned to the issue of sober-living houses.
Longtime city councilman Paul Markgraf took the oath of office to become the small city’s new mayor, replacing longtime Mayor David Jansing, who announced his resignation last month.
Markgraf was selected unanimously by his peers on council.
“Very different perspective from this seat,” Markgraf joked as he took his new chair.
But the months-long debate about sober-living houses in the city returned to the forefront of discussion.
Oxford House, a national nonprofit, now has three sober-living houses in Lakeside Park. When the third was announced last summer, some residents began to mobilize against it. Other Northern Kentucky cities are also home to Oxford House locations, which operate in locally-owned properties, and are designed to be self-sustained by the residents. There are no addiction counselors on site.
“The number of residents in a House may range from six to fifteen; there are houses for men, houses for women, and houses which accept women with children,” the organization explains on its website. “Oxford Houses flourish in metropolitan areas such as New York City and Washington, D.C. and thrive in such diverse communities as Hawaii, Washington State, Canada and Australia; but they all abide by the basic criteria.”
Rob Grimes, who has spoken frequently on behalf of residents concerned about the growing number of sober-living houses in Lakeside Park, has urged the city to pay for a report on the houses’ impact. An estimated cost of such a report, to be conducted by a Chicago-based attorney, is between $12,000 and $15,000.
“I think this is the first big step toward addressing sober living in the city,” Grimes said.
Grimes said that doing nothing has not worked because there are three such houses in the city, and addiction issues in the region are not improving.
“We need to try and control the situation,” he said.
Other gains from such a report, according to Grimes, would include the requirement of certified use permits for non-Oxford Houses, and would suggest that the city government is protecting citizens’ best interests.
Grimes cited police reports related to existing sober-living houses in the city.
Mayor Markgraf said that treatment facilities and sober-living homes are treated differently in Kentucky law, with treatment facilities regulated by the state.
“There is no treatment in a sober-living house,” the mayor said. Markgraf said that he has lived across the street from one of the Oxford Houses for three years. “If there is no treatment, Kentucky law and the Americans with Disability Act does not allow us to regulate that.”
Markgraf said that City Attorney Greg Voss reached out to the Chicago attorney who had requested a copy of the city’s zoning code. That attorney told Voss that there is nothing that the city could do to block the Oxford Houses.
It was explained that this is because there is not a size limit on “family” as it relates to housing in the city’s zoning code, and unless that definition of family is changed in the city and with a majority of the cities in the county, a report by the Chicago attorney would be useless.
Markgraf then questioned what the value of such a report would be if the outcome is already known. The city would be up against state law and possibly the federal constitution.
Markgraf is also an attorney.
“As a trained attorney, yes, if there are arguments that can be made, that is something to be considered,” Markgraf said. “At this point, with the jurisdiction of federal law, with the Americans with Disability Act, and the definition of family in Kenton county, and our zoning ordinances here, I don’t see where there is any feasible action that can be taken, but that is up to council.”
The city has already spent about $13,000 in attorney fees since this has begun. Council last week gave the OK for Voss to reach out to the Chicago attorney again to determine what kind of information would be made available in a specially-created report.
