JILL SCHRAMM/MDN A recovery house operated by Seeds of Eden at 425 Main St. S. is shut down due to a city order that followed a January building inspection.

An addiction recovery house has lost its permit to operate in downtown Minot following an inspection that found multiple issues.

The Minot Planning Commission on Tuesday, March 10, revoked the conditional use permit of Seeds of Eden, which the city inspections division recently shut down. The group home provider had received a permit in late 2023 for property at 425 Main St. S.

Seeds of Eden was found to be in violation of its conditional use permit, including failure to obtain an alternate parking plan following expiration of a parking lot lease with Trinity Health, housing a registered sex offender, noncompliance with state and city laws and regulations and failure to rectify an unsafe building.

Last Dec. 22, the city learned a sex offender was registered at the property in violation of the permit. The resident was transitioned out of the property on Jan. 23 but the city considered the situation to have been a violation.

Additionally, information from the North Dakota Behavioral Health Division indicated Seeds of Eden was terminated from state programs that provide reimbursement for addiction recovery services and housing assistance on Nov. 12, 2024, due to noncompliance with a requirement related to labor. The requirement states a provider may not hire or receive volunteer labor for personal purposes from any individual receiving services in the program.

Other violations related to lack of building permits to address an unsafe building and occupying an unsafe structure. The house is considered unsafe because a long addition was constructed onto the Victorian section in a manner not in keeping with the building code.

“The building permits were not acted on in a timely manner, and staff had informed Seeds of Eden the structure was not cleared for occupancy,” city planner Dan Falconer told the planning commission. “They are not commercial developers, so we really take the time and really work with them to try to get them across the finish line, and the permits weren’t getting picked up. They did finally get picked up, and that’s what gave us the opportunity to go in and inspect the property.”

The premise was inspected on Jan. 26 and was found to be in violation, as residents were occupying the building. A ‘do not occupy’ sticker was placed on the door, along with the order from the building official prohibiting entry and use of the building.

A site inspection in August 2025 also had found a portion of the building was occupied despite the building being deemed unsafe, according to information provided to the planning commission. At that time, Seeds of Eden reported administrative operations were located in the west portion and no one occupied the east addition. However, the city found in January that the entire premise was occupied by individuals residing there on a permanent basis.

Falconer said recovery houses typically operate in conjunction with addiction treatment programs, but in the case of Seeds of Eden, there was no treatment program connected with it following the termination of state involvement.

“There’s really no oversight here. This house has private funding, and it’s led to these kinds of issues that normally would get corrected by some kind of state entity,” Falconer said. “Staff would support this entity, Seeds of Eden, coming back at a later date if they were able to secure some kind of negotiation with one of the licensed addiction treatment programs in town as an oversight partner. But, as it stands right now, our ordinance does not support stand-alone recovery homes.”

No representative of Seeds of Eden appeared Tuesday at the public hearing.

“I very much appreciate the mission and the intent of Seeds of Eden,” planning commissioner Tim Baumann said. “I’m bummed that they didn’t meet those requirements, but our neighbors do deserve to have that assurance that an actor who moves into their neighborhood will follow the rules set out to them.”