06-19-08 Regular Meeting and Public Hearing of the La Porte Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes

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ERIC LOWENTHAL 696 Rim Rock Road Kerrville, TX 78028-7001 July 9, 2008 1m IE @ IE 0 [YJ IE m 1m JUL 102008 ~ Mr. Masood Malik, City Planner City of LaPorte Planning Department 604 W. Fairmont Parkway LaPorte, 1)( 77571 By Re: SCUP #08-003 Permit Request Dear Mr. Malik: As trustee for nearby Blocks 863 and 866, I wish to register my opposition to the subject request and I ask you to bring my protest to the attention of the Planning and Zoning Commission and the LaPorte City Council. It is my understanding that, if the permit request is granted, the building on Block 867 will also be used as a half-way house. Persons living in half-way houses usually end up there for several reasons: They have been released from a mental institution, are not yet rehabilitated and need continued supervision. They are drug users, child molesters or sex offenders, who, after incarceration, have been ordered by the court to a half-way house for continued monitoring. Proposed building modifications have not been available. Nevertheless, I am surprised that the applicant would arrange to have persons of uncertain stability or questionable character housed next to a day care center. I doubt that parents would knowingly keep their children in the adjacent facility. I wonder if customers of the Kroger shopping center next door would feel comfortable knowing there is a half-way house on the other side of the street. Likewise, a business operator would think twice before locating a business across the street from a half-way house, thus depressing the value of nearby vacant land. I have observed one half-way house in Kerrville, where the residents are often lounging around on the front lawn without supervision and are not always inside. I have been told by neighbors of another half- way house (in Houston), that the house is often noisy, that the house has been wantonly damaged and not repaired - to the detriment of the neighborhood. Half-way houses are generally government funded on a head count basis: the more people are housed, the more money comes in. It is therefore in the interest of the owner to house the maximum number of residents, and that, in turn, tends to allow the most deviant cases to be accepted also. This would apply even to a not-for-profit operator, who would not want to have to subsidize the operation. Although half-way houses are supposed to be inspected by a government agency regularly, we all know that tight government budgets do not allow inspections as frequently as we all would like. Consequently, a poor or unsafe operation of a half-way house may not be corrected for a long time: the neighborhood - the City - would be the loser. Thank you for giving your consideration to my concerns. ~ ~ EXH,'BIT ..... ~. t