City drops criminal case against group home

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The city has dropped criminal charges against a group

home on Orange Avenue that has been put up for sale.

Criminal charges, filed in August, alleged that Coastal Recovery

Living, LLC violated several city codes prohibiting more than six people

from residing in a single-family home.

The group home was actually made up of two houses, located at 1976 and

1978 Orange Avenue. The properties are now for sale with an asking price

of more than $1 million, said Mayor Gary Monahan.

“The price is somewhat ridiculous,” Monahan said. “I don’t think the

houses are priced for a quick sale.”

Donald Hicks, a resident of the group home, confirmed the asking

price.

Officials from the city attorney’s office said criminal charges were

dropped last week to allow the city to concentrate on civil charges

against the group home.

A civil lawsuit filed this week by William H. Ihrke, an attorney

representing the city, repeats the allegations stated in the criminal

complaint and asks for damages and an injunction to stop owners Robert

and Tracy Tameny from operating the group home.

The Tamenys were unavailable for comment Thursday.

The home had up to 40 people living in it at one time -- far exceeding

the occupant limitations -- and neighbors complained about noise,

excessive trash and parked cars overcrowding the neighborhood.

“Neighbors have informed the city that the problem is exacerbated by

the fact that defendants conduct parties or meetings in the garage and

side yard on the property at least twice a week,” according to the

lawsuit. “Finally, the neighbors complain that the transient nature of

the tenancies results in the property being a revolving door of new

tenants, which is the antithesis of the type of stability that

[single-family residential] zones are designed to foster.”

But one of the residents, Robert G., who declined to give his last

name, said the home had helped him and many others.

“Places like this help people like me that have made mistakes in the

past clean up their lives,” he said, describing the home as a “safe

haven.”

He also said that house rules prohibited activities such as those

alleged in the lawsuit.

City officials notified the Tamenys about the violation and met with

them, but the Tamenys have refused to cooperate, according to the

lawsuit.