Lincoln City Council members Monday approved a contested special permit to operate a halfway house in the Woods Park neighborhood, but they will require the house to increase its oversight and inspections.Â
Earlier this year, Tina Arsiaga, a drug and alcohol counselor, sought the special permit to expand her halfway house at 420 S. 28th St. from three residents to six.Â
Her application marked the first one for an alternative-to-imprisonment special permit since the council created them in 2005.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission approved the permit, but a neighbor appealed it.Â
During public hearings, neighbors have been divided over the expansion, with some supporting it as an important way to help people transitioning out of prison, while other neighbors opposed it, saying the city needed rules in place to assure the safety of the house's residents and its neighbors.Â
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They questioned why the city didn't regulate so-called alternative-to-imprisonment facilities when it put in place regulations for group homes.
Last week, the council approved a moratorium on new applications because of concerns over a lack of city rules for halfway houses and concerns that arose from neighbors.Â
Before agreeing to put conditions on Arsiaga's halfway house, council members debated whether the granting of the special permit would be fair.Â
On Monday, Councilwoman Tammy Ward said she did not support the special permit because she did not want to grandfather in Arsiaga's halfway house when the council last week put in that moratorium to give the city time to craft rules.Â
But Councilwoman Sändra Washington countered that the council should not "move the goal post" for Arsiaga, who applied for the permit when new rules didn't exist.
Before a vote, Councilwoman Jane Raybould proposed amendments to satisfy the concerns of neighbors and Arsiaga.Â
"That’s part of our job, to reach out and hear both sides of a story and try to come up with a plan that will work and succeed," Raybould said.Â
Among the rules enacted by the council were requirements that Arsiaga have a staff member supervise the residents from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., provide contact information for the manager to the city, provide four off-street parking stalls, submit to compliance inspections every two years and not allow the permit to be transferred with sale of the land.Â
Assistant City Attorney Tim Sieh said, typically, permits pass with the deed during an exchange in ownership.
"This is certainly unusual," Sieh said, but it was legal.Â
Some neighbors who opposed the permit had called for limiting it to the Arsiagas, because neighbors would not know who the next owners may be and how they ethically would run their business. Â
After divided votes on the amendments, the council unanimously granted the permit, and afterward Arsiaga and several neighbors mingled in the City Hall lobby.Â
As many as two more permits were set to be filed with city planning before the council enacted the moratorium.Â
The council was supposed to hear an appeal of a second, contested halfway house permit for 838 F St. on Monday, but it was withdrawn.