HERMANN – City Hall’s hands appear tied regarding the establishment of a group home for more than a half-dozen recovering addicts in a single-family residential within Hermann.

Learning to Live Recovery, a treatment program for recovering alcoholics and other substance abusers based outside Hermann, is developing a group home for a reported eight residents in the 1000 block of Stone Hill Highway. The home has drawn sharp opposition from residents of the neighborhood, claiming it puts property values in jeopardy and will be disruptive to the neighborhood.

The neighbors recently presented the Hermann Board of Aldermen with a petition calling on city officials to not allow the group home in the single-family neighborhood. The residents argue there are more appropriate areas of the city for the group home, such as in a multi-family residential district.

The issue has been widely discussed on social media in the county seat.

But at Monday night’s aldermen session, City Attorney David Politte cited state and federal codes aimed at ensuring residential opportunities for those with disabilities. The attorney said recovering alcoholics and drug users are considered to be disabled and therefore covered under the state and federal laws.

Politte pointed out that the city’s ordinance and state law are at odds regarding the number of people allowed in a single-family dwelling. The city calls for five; state law says eight or fewer.

“Our ordinance and the state statute don’t necessarily agree,” he said.

Further, even though the residents will be paying to live in the home, the operation is not considered a business, Politte said.

“They don’t have to go to commercial (zoning to provide the service),” he said of Learning to Live.

The group home also is not subject to planning and zoning regulations – such as hours of operation, parking requirements, lighting requirements and so forth. About the only thing City Hall can do regarding the group home, according to Politte, is to ensure the property doesn’t begin looking like a business.

“It has to continue looking like a house in keeping with the neighborhood,” he told the aldermen.

That’s not good enough for residents like Brad Brown, who lives on Stone Hill Highway. Two weeks earlier, Brown spoke against the project and presented city officials with a petition calling for the home to be prohibited in the neighborhood. During Monday night’s session, after listening to Politte discuss what his research into the issue showed, Brown repeated his call to prevent the group home operation and vowed that, despite what state and federal law might say, residents are prepared to fight the group home.

“I don’t know who came up with the idea to determine these people to be handicapped,” Brown said. “The rest of us, especially me, are determined to take this as far as necessary...(to fight the home),” he told the aldermen.

In other matters taken up Monday night, City Administrator Patrica Heaney noted that the Missouri Department of Transportation would be holding a public gathering at City Hall Sept. 19 allowing residents to learn about the proposed upgrade to the Frene Creek bridge on Market Street (Highway 19). A specific time for what MoDOT is calling an “outreach meeting” had yet to be determined, Heaney said.

Improving the bridge is one of Gasconade County government’s top transit projects in the county’s five-year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), which is developed each November with MoDOT and regional planning commission officials. The upgrade is scheduled for next year.

The aldermen also will be considering allowing vehicles such as side-by-sides, all-terrain and golf carts to operate on city streets. Alderman Susan Lenger raised the issue Monday night, noting that she had received a request from a resident about Hermann joining the list of cities allowing the vehicles to operate on streets.

Politte said he would research Washington’s ordinance that allows the vehicles on that city’s streets as he prepares legislation that could be considered by Hermann officials.

These types of vehicles aren’t allowed on state highways – although they are allowed to cross a state highway to get to another local street.