Hearing Planned on Drug Center

LAKE VIEW TERRACE —  Phoenix House, a controversial drug treatment center that began operating here three years ago, faces a hearing next month over charges that its teenage residents are causing problems in the surrounding neighborhood.

The city’s chief zoning administrator called a Sept. 16 hearing in response to complaints from neighbors last year and a strongly worded letter from Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the area and once battled to keep the center from opening.

In the letter, which asks the administrator to revoke the facility’s operating permit, Alarcon cites police reports of teenagers leaving the facility without permission and complaints that the landscaping and fencing do not comply with the strict requirements imposed by the city.

But since sending the letter, Alarcon has softened his stand, saying he no longer wants to close the facility but wants some security and landscaping improvements made.

“At this point I’m not getting too many complaints,” he said.

In fact, most of the neighbors who were interviewed Monday either had no problem with the center or praised it for improving the look of the neighborhood with its flowery landscaping.

“The whole place looks a lot better since they’ve been here,” said John Ridgeway, manager of Cyclamen Growers, a wholesale nursery across the street from the center. He said the facility replaced a vacant hospital that was a neighborhood eyesore.

“It looks nice,” said Pari Garza, a seven-year neighbor. “Before, it was nothing. It was a deserted hospital.”

Another neighbor, Leticia Alvarado, a youth counselor, said she has never seen teenagers jump over the center’s 5-foot fence or loiter on the nearby streets.

“‘All they do is play baseball and stuff,” she said. “It’s really a place to help kids.”

New York-based Phoenix House opened the 150-bed facility in March 1993 after five years of intense neighborhood debate and opposition from neighbors who feared the troubled youths would wander nearby streets, causing trouble.

As part of the last-minute negotiations to get the City Council’s approval, Phoenix House administrators agreed to erect a 5 1/2-foot fence around the perimeter and post a non-uniformed employee at the front gate at all times.

In addition to providing counseling, the center is a residential high school for youths ages 13 to 17 who have no history of violence. The program is voluntary, and the youths are referred by probation officers, police or parents.

In his letter to Chief Zoning Administrator Robert Janovici, Alarcon said the Los Angeles Police Department last year documented 86 incidents of teens leaving the facility without permission.

Phoenix House directors acknowledged some security problems in the past but downplayed the incidents.

William H. Smith, the center’s director of clinical services, said that because the teens at Phoenix House are there on a voluntary basis, his staff is not authorized to physically restrain those who leave the property.

He added that on two occasions, teens have left the facility by jumping over an adjacent wall and entering a nearby residential yard.

But in response, he said, a 12-foot wrought-iron fence has been erected along one side of the property.

Smith noted that some of the Phoenix House teens have tutored younger students in the community and have provided volunteer work for San Fernando Mayor Rosa Chacon--a service that has won praise even from Alarcon.

“We feel pretty good about what goes on here,” Smith said.

Chris Policano, a Phoenix House spokesman, said a few incidents of loitering and other problems would be expected with any high school in the country. But he said that all in all, the center has been a benefit to the community.

“The review will give us the opportunity to discuss what we have been doing,” he said. “We believe we are a positive part of the community.”