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State Rep. Letson ordered to provide evidence on sober house
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Federal law allows recovering alcoholics to live in a sober house in a home zoned for single-family occupancy as long as the facility operates under a set of rules.
What is missing right now is evidence that the sober house being operated in a Foster Street Northeast home owned by Atty. Thomas Letson is operating under such rules, Warren Law Director Greg Hicks said Friday.
Judge Barbara Watson has indicated that Letson needs to present evidence to the court indicating what rules are in effect, Hicks said after a hearing in judge’s chambers.
Watson is the visiting judge handling a criminal zoning charge filed against Letson for purportedly operating a rooming house in an area not zoned for it.
Letson asked Judge Watson to throw the case out during the first hearing in December.
The city countered that it was premature to do that, and Judge Watson has not ruled on the request, Letson said after the hearing. A pretrial is now set for 10 a.m. April 11.
Letson, of Warren, who is representing himself, is 64th District state representative and a candidate for Ohio Supreme Court.
He has no opponent in the Democratic May primary for Ohio Supreme Court justice and said he’s not concerned that the criminal case will affect his run for the supreme Court. Letson is barred from running for state representative again because of term limits.
Traci Timko Rose, assistant Warren law director, said the Federal Housing Act says “reasonable accommodations” should be made for people with disabilities, such as individuals with alcoholism, that would allow them to live in a single-family home if the accommodation “doesn’t create a fundamental alteration in the land and zoning scheme.”
For instance, the result cannot be a significant increase in vehicle traffic or disturbances to the tranquility of the neighborhood, Timko Rose said.
Neighbors had reported disturbances at the home last summer, but it has been quiet recently, said John Brown, Warren councilman for that area.
Brown said after the hearing his position is that the zoning doesn’t allow for a sober house and he would hope that local ordinances such as zoning would prevail when they clash with federal law.