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Ruling stalls home for bipolar patients
Published October 24, 2006
BRAZORIA — An Oregon couple’s dream of turning their new house into an after-treatment home for bipolar patients has been delayed by a district judge’s ruling.
Three bedrooms in the house sit unoccupied, with linens for the beds still in plastic bags, while Debra and Mark Meehl appeal a local judge’s ruling that the house cannot be used as refuge for people who have been treated for bipolar disorder.
“When they want to integrate back with society they would come to a group home,” Debra Meehl said.
The home was not intended for use as a treatment facility, she said.
However, District Judge Pat Sebesta ruled last week the 3,800 square-foot Meehl House, located in the Carlton Acres subdivision outside Brazoria, cannot be used for anything other than a single-family residence because he said deed restrictions in the subdivision prohibit anything else, according to the ruling.
The suit was brought by the Meehls’ neighbors.
“This is a single-family residence neighborhood,” said Keith Vaughn, attorney for the neighbors who filed the suit. “The Meehls did not show they were an exception to the deed restrictions.”
Debra and Mark Meehl live in the house and contend state and federal law prevent deed restrictions from restricting group homes.
“You cannot zone out the mentally ill,” said Debra Meehl.
The Community Homes for Disabled Persons Act, which was passed in 1985 by the Texas Legislature, allows for the building of community homes even in deed-restricted neighborhoods, Debra Meehl said.
In his ruling, Sebesta said the deed restrictions in Carlton Acres are older than the state law by 20 years. Therefore the Meehls do not meet the requirement for an exception, he said.
“Accordingly, because the deed restrictions of the Carlton Acres subdivision were created in 1965, prior to Sept. 1, 1985, and because the conveyance to the Meehls was made and accepted subject to the deed provisions, the court hereby finds that neither the Meehls nor the foundation meet the requirements of Texas law to operate a community home in the Carlton Acres subdivision,” he said.
Mark and Debra Meehl are working on an appeal and said if the state appellate courts or the Texas Supreme Court do not grant them permission, they will file a cause in federal court.
The Fair Housing Act Amendment of 1988 states that deed restrictions cannot prevent a group home for mentally disabled persons from being built or used, Debra Meehl said.
“The law is on our side,” Mark Meehl said. “Ultimately, it will work out.”
The Meehls purchased land in the subdivision to build their $300,000 home. The couple purchased the land because the forests in the area reminded them of their home state of Oregon, Mark Meehl said.
Construction on the house was completed in July.
John Tompkins covers the Brazoria County Courthouse for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 849-8581.
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