Newly-filed legislation could change how drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities are regulated in residential neighborhoods.
Introduced by Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, AB 3 was inspired by an October state audit that found several rehab facilities with the same owner and some shared amenities, including dining halls and gyms, are located close together in residential neighborhoods in Orange and San Diego counties.
These setups, Dixon argued, undermine the intent of creating homelike recovery spaces by making them feel like hospitals or institutions.
She said her bill is to “make sure patients have a safe environment where they can get well.”
“The whole goal of these facilities was to remove an institutional aspect to them, but having so many shared amenities close together returns them to that institutional model,” Dixon said.
California law allows the Department of Health Care Services to license treatment facilities with six or fewer beds in residential areas, treating them as single-family homes under zoning law.
But AB 3 seeks to change that come 2026.
Facilities with six or fewer beds would still count as single-family homes, but if a new facility is within 300 feet of another with the same owner, shared programs or amenities, and together they house more than six residents, that facility would not qualify for single-family zoning protections.
Instead, they could be treated as businesses or institutions, depending on local zoning laws and regulations, which would mean stricter oversight and compliance requirements.
State law does not prevent treatment facilities from being located near each other or sharing the same owner, but Dixon argued that the current setup of rehab centers in residential areas feels more like an institution than a home.
“It’s no different than being in a hospital,” she said. “They’ve been re-institutionalized in their local neighborhood.”
Dixon said AB 3 is the first in a series of bills she plans to champion this legislative session — which gets back underway from the holiday recess on Monday, Jan. 6 — to address residential treatment recovery facilities.
“I will be introducing bills so that we get to the common, absolute goal of improving people’s lives and recovering people who need help,” she said.
Orange County has the highest per capita concentration of rehab facilities in the state, and other local lawmakers besides Dixon — who requested the state audit — have also tried to implement regulations on these facilities.
Assemblymember Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, was behind legislation signed into law this year that requires any state-licensed or certified facilities and programs for alcohol or drug recovery to publicly disclose on their websites whether their license is on probation, faced a temporary suspension, has been revoked or the operator has received a notice for breaking the law.
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