Retreat center sues county over plan to reorganize as drug, alcohol rehab facility

Only the lawyers' fees are going to win here.

Good luck with this one. What damage have their clients suffered???? Plan on paying the atty. lots for nothing.

The neighbors' that objected this are wealthy people that do not want a recovery center in their back yard, they all should be ashamed with them self.

There should be more concern with the illegal camping and camp fires in the open space around them than a recovering addict dropping a lit cigarette, in a community meeting the owners even agreed to make it a no smoking facility

The length of time it would take for emergency first responders to get there would be less than 5 minutes as there is a state fire station around two miles away, during fire season there are two engines staffed at this station.

The impacts on traffic would be no different or less than when the facility was run as a retreat.

Just as with traffic the use of water would be no different than when it was run as a retreat, if there is a concern with the water system this should be taken up with Cal Water.



I hope the owners of Stillpath win the lawsuit and take a huge finical bite out of the County like Charles Keenan did to Halfmoon Bay

Stillpath lost their appeal before the board of supervisors because the land is in an area where this type of intensive land use is disallowed. That hasn't changed. The owners are making one final try to get their use-permits. If this doesn't work, they will most likely be selling the place.

The site is located in the RM Zone and under county zoning code, this type of facility is not allowed. Lennie Roberts of the Committee for Green Foothills found it hard to fathom that the County Planning Department could rationalize that a single density credit for this 16 acre site could become Stillpath, a hotel with 76 guests and a staff of somewhere between 28 and 76 depending on which version of the staffing plan you believe. There are plenty of other issues with this property too but this was the key one.

If this was a Girl Scout Headquarters with as many or more people at this location the neighbors that brought this on would have no problem with any of the additional resource needs

A jury trial is the only chance for the owners to get approval to operate the facility as a highly profitable treatment center. They have successfully used jury selection consultants in the past in the murder trial of their ex-business partner.
Web Link

21st Century Brain/addiction science and medicine are upon us. Stillpath's cutting edge approach represents a major breakthrough in this long stigmatized disease while truly helping what affects 1 in 3 of our families here, and across America. The Bay Area is the crown jewel for innovation and progress. Why wouldn't modern addiction treatment be on the short list of the most important social issues to address when we have one of the finest facilities and plans in the world right here in our own backyard?

Bravo to the Stillpath owners.

I saw where Stillpath has also filed for bankruptcy. These guys really know how to work the system.

In response to the folks who feel like Stillpath is the underdog here...
At a monthly fee of $45,000.00 per patient for treatment, Stillpath is hardly an altruistic enterprise.
While I'm no expert on the stats, someone has mentioned in an earlier post that 1 in 3 families are affected by substance abuse.
I wonder how many of those families can afford $45,000.00 a month to send a family member for treatment?
It's hard for me to buy Stillpath's claim of being a "public service" and a champion for social causes.

What motivates a group to spend millions to build a "wellness retreat" only to decide later they'd rather be a luxe substance abuse center with exorbitant fees to cure people?
People who invest that kind of money seldom run into zoning 'surprises'.
They assumed they could pull the right strings with the County Planning Department and they were right!

Bravo to the neighbors and the County Supervisors for standing their ground!