Drug treatment center draws fire from neighbors

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, May 9, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

A loophole in the city's zoning and licensing requirements may have led to a drug treatment center being allowed to open just feet from a Las Vegas middle school, city officials said.

Choices Group Inc., a certified drug treatment center that sees at least 200 convicted drug offenders per day, was approved by city staffers last summer to open next to Hyde Park Elementary School.

Bob Genzer, the city's planning director, said the center was given a business license equivalent to a medical office because it most closely mirrors that use. The city has no licensing category for a drug treatment center, thus no separation requirements between the uses and schools.

In a heated neighborhood meeting Wednesday night, residents expressed outrage that a drug treatment center was allowed to open so close to homes and a school, saying it is not compatible with the area.

"I find it kind of ironic that the name of the center is Choices, when they made the choice of putting a drug treatment center in a neighborhood," said Yiorgo Aretos, manager of Sonia's Cafe Rotisserie. "It just doesn't work in a neighborhood."

City officials say while the center is properly zoned and licensed, there is a question of compatibility with the neighborhood. Genzer said there are obvious flaws with the business licensing requirements and plans to draft a bill creating a category for a drug treatment center, then will possibly look at separation requirements.

Choices Group Inc. has been open since last summer at Valley View Boulevard and Fulton Avenue, and until recently has gone unnoticed by most residents. At the center, staff counsel men and women -- a majority who are convicted of drug offenses in Clark County drug courts -- who are put in a counseling program for one year, in lieu of jail.

John Marr, executive regional director for Choices Group Inc., said the center sees 270 to 300 clients per day, 250 that are court referred. Since the center has been open, Marr said only two or three residents have expressed concerns to his office over alleged questionable behavior of his clients.

"Our folks are in our program because they made some bad choices in their life, and now they're trying to get it turned around," he said.

According to Metro Police, there has not been an increase in calls for service in that area since Choices Group Inc. moved in. There has also been no increase in auto burglaries. Residential burglaries have doubled in the last year, but the suspects caught were juveniles that were not associated with the center, police said.

Residents and business owners admit they haven't called police but say they're intimidated by the clients being treated at the center and are afraid of retaliation.

Carol McLeod, who works at the nearby Horizon Properties, said she locks her business door for fear of the loitering and crime in the parking lot she says is caused by clients at the center.

"I think (the center) took advantage of very weak ordinance," she said. "Now I'm doing business behind locked doors."

If the matter were to go to court, City Attorney Brad Jerbic urged residents to make a formal record of their concerns to Metro.

Councilman Michael McDonald requested an agenda item at the council's June 19 meeting to air the concerns and decide whether the center is suitable in the neighborhood or if the business license should be revoked.

He said that the issue could end up in the courts, alluding to a similar battle with Hot Stuff, an adult bookstore that opened in a commercial zone in his ward that was eventually shut down by the city, resulting in a more than two-year legal battle.

"There is no way in God's green earth an elected officials would take a rehab clinic ... and put it in a neighborhood," McDonald said. "This may turn into a legal battle, but we will fix the problem."