The fate of Fraternity House, one of San Diego’s only licensed homes for the chronically ill, was decided late Monday night when the San Marcos Planning Commission voted to extend the facility’s Conditional Use Permit for another five years, with the option of an additional five-year administrative extension.

Fraternity House executive director Molly Henry said the staff is pleased with the decision. The renewal includes an extension of their normal visiting hours, and commissioners said they would help Fraternity House obtain a special-events permit for their holiday open house, taking place this Tuesday, Dec. 14.

“[M]ost importantly, they have recognized the importance of our work and the longevity of our agency in the community,” Henry said in a statement following the hearing, “ … we intend to continue being good neighbors and helping men and women with HIV/AIDS as long as there is a need for our services.”

This is the first time the facility has had to renew its permit to continue operating as a licensed Residential Care Facility for the Chronically Ill (RCFCI). The 4,000 square-foot Elfin Forest home that currently provides 24-hour care for eight men living with AIDS has been at its current location since 1993.

Prior to the meeting, approximately 100 people held candles in front of City Hall and around the fountain near the entrance in support of Fraternity House’s permit renewal, and 200 people attended the hearing.

Fifteen people spoke at the three-hour planning commission meeting, including Henry, Fraternity House supporters and Fraternity House’s neighbors, who asked for stiffer permit requirements regarding parking, visiting hours and special events.

“While these conditions may be legal when it comes to land-use and planning laws, they are blatantly illegal when it comes to fair housing laws,” Henry said at the meeting. The Fair Housing Council, which wrote a letter supporting Fraternity House’s permit renewal, says it is illegal to impose any restrictions on disabled people unless those same restrictions are placed on able-bodied neighbors. “It is discrimination,” Henry said.

The four neighbors who spoke at the meeting said that they did not want to see Fraternity House booted off the land, only that traffic, septic system and trash disposal issues be addressed. Many said they moved to the Elfin Forest area because it is conducive to owning horses, and that excessive traffic generated by waste management and delivery vehicles entering and leaving Fraternity House was spooking their horses and dangerous for their young children.

“I don’t want to see them lose their home,” one neighbor said. “I just want some safety and compliance.”

Several suggested to the commission that Fraternity House be allowed to convert an access road located at the other end of the shared driveway into a separate entrance.

Septic tank stench and recurring incidences of white foam running through drainage ditches during heavy rains were also brought before the commission, both of which could not be directly linked to the home.

Several Fraternity House supporters said the accusations were a case of not-in-my-backyard syndrome – conditional support of HIV/AIDS homes as long as they’re located in someone else’s neighborhood.

Planning Commissioner Jason Blacklock disagreed. “I don’t see that at all,” he said. “…I think they’re all workable problems.”

Commissioners suggested the stench could be coming from the landfill, which abuts one end of Fraternity House’s property line, and that the white foam phenomenon could be due to the fact that the Elfin Forest is built on a slab of blue granite, which is known to “effervesce” during rainstorms, causing white foam to rise to the surface with the groundwater. One Fraternity House neighbor who spoke in support of Fraternity House discounted the white foam as well, saying a similar phenomena happened in Escondido Creek on the other side of town.

Neighbors requested a continuance on the hearing until a group of stakeholders could meet and formally develop their concerns, but the commission denied the request, saying whatever decision they made would most likely be appealed.

Henry said the facility has always been in compliance regarding traffic, septic and trash issues, and that anti-gay bias and fear due to ignorance about HIV and AIDS are the motivation behind their complaints.

“We did not realize the level of scapegoating that had been going on for years, when virtually everything awry was blamed on ‘the AIDS house,’” Henry said. “Somehow, neighbors think we are responsible for every car that passes their house and every scrap of paper on their lawn. … In this environment, whispers become gossip, gossip becomes myth and myth becomes fact.”

The complaints started approximately a year ago, when signs announcing Fraternity House’s request for permit renewal were posted along Elfin Forest road and anonymous letters were published in Elfin Forest’s newsletter soon after. The letters assigned guilt to Fraternity House residents for contracting HIV/AIDS, complained about the residents of Fraternity House “roaming our neighborhood,” and said, “It’s time to take our community back….”

When neighbors were required to give their names in order to file formal complaints with the San Marcos Planning Commission, they changed their tune, Henry said. But complaints about medical waste lying on the roadside and septic lines bursting continued, and a week prior to the hearing, a complaint surfaced about Henry possibly violating building codes because her office is housed in a horse stable behind the main house.

“There seems to be no end to the pettiness,” Henry told the commisioners. “…Does anyone in this room seriously think we would be here if Fraternity House served children or the elderly? At the very least, the letters the planning department received would have been fewer and far more respectful.”

Because the facility has been in compliance with all health and planning regulations, the commissioners’ staff recommendation was to renew the permit prior to the public comment period, but feedback from the neighbors influenced the commission to recommend the permit be renewed for shorter periods of time.