Church Group to Rally Against Drug Center Site

A northeast San Fernando Valley ministers’ group met in Pacoima Saturday to plan a rally against the proposed Nancy Reagan Center for drug treatment in Lake View Terrace.

Most of the 40 pastors in the multidenominational Ministers Fellowship of the San Fernando Valley oppose the treatment center site chosen by Phoenix House, which would operate the facility. The fellowship, however, has not taken a formal position, group spokesman Fred Taylor said.

“We don’t want the churches to sit here in a vacuum with the whole town coming apart,” said the Rev. Dudley Chatman, president of the ministers’ group and one of eight members who attended Saturday’s meeting.

December Deadline

The rally is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Greater Community Baptist Church in Pacoima.

Phoenix House has until mid-December to raise $7.7 million to buy the former Lake View Terrace Medical Center and to receive city approval of zoning changes needed for the drug treatment center.

A main reason for the ministers’ and homeowners’ opposition to the Lake View Terrace site is its location near a residential area with an elementary school and convalescent home nearby.

The center would treat 150 adolescents and 60 adults, and residents fear its presence would result in increased crime and drugs in the neighborhood, Taylor said.

“The community realizes there is a social need for facilities like this, but they need to be placed in an area where they will not destruct a community,” said Lewis Snow, president of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. Property values and the community’s ability to attract commercial development could also suffer, Snow said.

But Larraine Mohr, Phoenix House vice president, said in a telephone interview that those fears are unfounded. The organization’s centers in other cities maintain a high level of supervision and treat people who want to get off drugs, not buy or sell them, she said.

“The problem is whether or not this society as a whole is going to deal with this problem” of drug abuse, Mohr said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and a representative of Phoenix House are expected to attend Saturday’s rally. An Antonovich spokesman said Friday that the supervisor is opposing Phoenix House’s choice of a residential area for the drug-treatment center.

The spokesman, Dawson Oppenheimer, and Snow say their opposition to the site does not mean they do not support fighting drug abuse. Community leaders are willing to help Phoenix House find another site, Snow said.

Antonovich supports drug-treatment centers but “believes that the plans for the Lake View Terrace site are inappropriate in view of the numerous protests by residents,” Oppenheimer said.