DENVER -- A Montbello neighborhood won a partial victory over halfway homes for sex offenders after battling it out at a zoning appeal hearing Tuesday.

Residents had complained after learning that that several sex offenders were living in a numerous halfway houses in their neighborhood.

After presenting the Denver Board of Adjustments with more than 300 signatures, and after four hours of heated debate, the homeowners won. The board ruled that more than three sex offenders cannot legally live in a single family home.

7News learned that one of the proposed homes, on East 51st Avenue, already houses four registered sex offenders.

"I am appalled," said Shanez Johnson, a local resident. "These people have been living next door to me for six months, and we have five children that live here ... We had no idea that this was going on right next to us."

The board gave sex offenders living in the four homes in question three months to relocate. The attorney for the offenders said that they may appeal the decision.

"We have seven elementary schools out here and it's too close to these schools and with kids walking up and down the street. It's just not safe," Montbello resident Robert Wilson said as he collected signatures for a petition on Monday.

"I just don't think a group home of sex offenders should be in a residential neighborhood where there are a lot of little kids," one homeowner said.

According to the law, two sex offenders could live in a house, but three or more sex offenders makes it a group home -- making it illegal in a residential neighborhood. The residents of the four sex offender houses have 60 days to decide whether one or all of them will move out, 7NEWS reported.