Clear Recovery is working with private property owners to house clients at a duplex just two blocks south of Logan High School on 100 West. The sober living center would be located in a neighborhood which is zoned for traditional, single family use, a designation which also allows for up to three unrelated persons to live together in a single unit.
The sober living center plan came before the Logan City Planning Commission because Clear Recovery would like to have six people living in each unit.
“We pick 12 because we’re desperate for housing,” said Michael O’Riley is the executive director and owner of Clear Recovery.“We have people that are living in their cars, living in hotels, living in homeless shelters. We have one that lives in a tent up in the canyon. We’ve got to fix those things so they can really engage in treatment and bring their life to a different situation.”
Denene Peck is a Logan resident who spoke at a Logan City Planning meeting Thursday.
“Our neighborhood has already got a lot of domestic violence and substance abuse and we have a high rate of people that move in and out because it’s not a favorable place to live. Even though that this is a positive thing that they’re doing to create the sober home, in that area it’s not a good place for it because it’s so close to small children,” Peck said.
Because of state and federal regulations, Logan city cannot prevent clients from moving into the duplex, but they can decide whether or not to approve a conditional use permit allowing for double the occupancy.
“The drug addicts and the alcoholics that we’re dealing with in the sober living homes aren’t the ones you need to be concerned about,” O’Reily said before the commission’s vote. “You need to be concerned about the ones that are already living in the neighborhood in their parent’s basement in the shed in the backyard and aren’t getting the help they need. Those are the ones who are going out and doing these things that people are afraid of.”
The planning commission approved the conditional use permit allowing for 12 residents based on the square footage of each unit and adequate bathroom facilities.
