Zoning Board To Hear Appeal to Restore Nonconforming Use Status in Order to Open New Residential Care Facility

Pasadena officials Staff members are recommending that the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals deny efforts to re-establish a non-conforming use at the site of a previous recovery center on North Raymond Avenue.

Pasadena Senior Villa Living wants to open a residential care facility at 1811 N. Raymond Ave., the previous location of the Pasadena Recovery Center.

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and can be viewed at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81749538108

Owners of the original facility successfully sought a conditional use permit (CUP) in 1963 for a 98-bed convalescent home, which opened in 1965.

But under current zoning codes, a residential care facility is not permitted in the district, which is zoned for multifamily residential homes.

The residential care facility’s use was grandfathered in and the subsequent facility operated as a nonconforming use.

Nonconforming uses were established before the codes and policies that are in place today were approved and allows businesses to operate outside of current regulations, including zoning codes.

The city revoked the site’s nonconforming use status one year after the Pasadena Recovery Center closed in 2018 and the nonconforming use designation was not used for 12 months.

The center was made famous by the reality television show “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” but on June 8, 2018 the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) suspended the license required to operate the facility after investigating the death of a patient and several other violations. 

“The nonconforming Residential Care, General use was discontinued on June 8, 2018 as a result of not being allowed to provide any services to patients,” according to a city staff report. 

“Staff confirmed that new licenses to operate the facility as a Residential Care, General use were not issued for the subject site prior to June 8, 2019. Based on the information provided by the state, and on the fact that no other permits or licenses were issued to operate at the site prior to the June 8, 2019 date, the Zoning Administrator made a determination that the nonconforming Residential Care, General use was discontinued for a continuous period of at least 12 months.”

“The zoning code prohibits land uses classified as Residential Care Facilities, General, including Assisted Living Facilities, at the subject location,” said Planning Director David Reyes. “If the BZA [Board of Zoning Appeals] agrees with staff that there are no grandfathered rights because of the one year lapse in the use, it would prohibit future rehabilitation or assisted living facilities at this site.”

The city has long sought policies to reign in nonconforming businesses.

In October, Planning Director David Reyes updated the Planning Commission on changes to the city’s nonconforming use provision could give the city more control over some long-term healthcare facilities in Northwest Pasadena and other nonconforming businesses. 

The change would shorten the time period that noncomforming businesses could keep their status if they shut down. 

When discussing the changes, Reyes did not single out any particular type of business. 

“We’re not looking to shut them down, but some other agency may shut them down, or they stopped on their own accord and they want to re-establish in 12 months and it may not be desirable for them to reopen.”

Bars and restaurants with drive-thrus could also be impacted by the change if it is approved by the City Council in the future. 

City staff is currently recommending the city’s hearing officer deny a proposed Chick-fil-A a CUP due to issues with a proposed drive-thru lane on Lake Avenue just north of Orange Grove Boulevard. Drive-thrus are also a nonconforming use and new ones are not permitted at that end of town. The building can be demolished and rebuilt as a drive-thru, but it cannot be larger than the existing Carl’s Jr. However, the current size of the drive-thru is below city standards.

In 2004, the city reeled in nonconforming liquor stores that opened years before local businesses were required to obtain CUPs, allowing them to operate only under state rules. 

The city’s 2004 “deemed-approved ordinance” allowed the city to place local conditions of operations on many of the nuisance stores on Orange Grove Boulevard negatively impacting the quality of life in that area of the city.