PLATTSBURGH -- The City of Plattsburgh Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance that would allow establishment of a sober-living house for women in the Center City.

Lorretta Rietsma and her brother, Larry Hoch, represented the Mary DeVeau Women's Sober Living House project before the Zoning Board at a meeting Monday night.

"I'm very grateful. I understand the misconceptions and apprehension," Rietsma said. "I appreciate the thoroughness with which they did their jobs."

She said next steps include becoming incorporated, closing on the house, about 6 months of home renovations and creating a referral network.

"We hope by sometime next spring we will be able to start accepting women into the program," Rietsma said.

Hoch said under provisions of the Fair Housing Act, recovering alcoholics are considered to have a handicap. That designation requires the Zoning Board to grant the variance, he said.

The Zoning Board voted 5-1 in favor of granting the area variance to allow 13 people in one house. Zoning Board members Chester Mazzone, Kathy Latinville, Michelle LaBounty, Connie Fisher and Stephen Fuller voted in favor, Maurica Gilbert voted in opposition and John Seiden abstained.

Mazzone said he voted in favor based on details of the Fair Housing Act, which is very specific as to when a variance needs to be granted. Latinville said she agreed, and also based her vote on Family Court Judge Timothy Lawliss's call for this type of house for many of the people who pass through Family Court.

Seiden said he sees the benefit, but also recognizes the city's work to resolve density issues in the Center City area.

Several people spoke in favor of the project. Gwen Reyell of Plattsburgh said she was an addict who was allowed to enter a clean house in West Hartford, Conn.

"These houses do work if you want it (sobriety)," she said.

Reyell later earned a degree in social work from the University of Connecticut.

Susan Green of Saranac said her daughter entered a treatment program in the Utica area when nothing was available locally. She said that helped her get her daughter back from addiction.

In a letter to the board, Green said, "I've been praying for a house for women in recovery for a long time."

Tracy Staub of Plattsburgh said she also is a recovering alcoholic. She was unable to return home when she came out of treatment due to mental and emotional abuse from a spouse, but through a similar sober house has since gone on to earn a degree in alcohol- and substance-abuse counseling.