Precedent Decried as School for the Disabled Moves In

The planned opening of a Van Nuys school for developmentally disabled adults has residents claiming that the school will set a precedent for the intrusion of businesses into their neighborhood of single-family homes.

Tierra del Sol, at 14123 Valerio St., is expected to begin classes as early as this week for 20 students. The opening comes after months of disagreement between the school’s administrators and neighborhood residents, who opposed the city’s issuance of a zoning permit for the school.

The Van Nuys school represents the first expansion beyond Sunland for Tierra del Sol, which has run a school there for mentally disabled adults since 1970.

The students will range in age from 21 into the 40s and are mentally retarded or have cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy or other neurological handicaps, said Janet Pudik, executive director of Tierra del Sol.

A group of residents complained to Los Angeles officials that the school would open the way for businesses and worsen traffic congestion in their middle-class neighborhood, which includes many retired homeowners.

The residents insisted that they do not oppose having mentally disabled adults in the area.

“The neighborhood feels strongly that putting a business in a residential neighborhood does not conform to city codes,” said Phyllis Heath, a spokeswoman for residents. “We’re concerned that it’s going to be a precedent to have businesses come into our area.

“Everyone takes it very emotionally because it’s mentally retarded adults, but that’s not our fight. No matter what, we come off looking like the bad guys,” she said.

The conflict began last spring when residents, upon learning of the school’s bid to open in their neighborhood, gathered more than 60 signatures opposing the school and gained the support of Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represents the area. At the end of a public hearing in May, a zoning administrator ruled that the school be denied a conditional use permit.

Tierra del Sol, however, appealed the decision to the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals. On July 30, the board reversed the earlier decision and granted the school a one-year permit.

The reversal prompted Bernardi to introduce a motion before the City Council calling for a municipal code change that would make the council--and not the Board of Zoning Appeals--the final arbiter in zoning questions over private schools. That motion is still pending before a council committee, but would apply only to future decisions and therefore would not affect Tierra del Sol’s case.

The permit includes 10 conditions to ease area residents’ concerns. It forbids more than eight students to be outdoors at any one time, excludes students who have a criminal record or suffer from a mental illness, restricts the school to daytime use only and calls for a review of the permit next year, among other conditions, according to Jesse Avila, an aide to Councilman Bernardi.

According to Tierra del Sol’s Pudik, those conditions will ensure that the school fits unobtrusively into the neighborhood. Other businesses would be discouraged from applying for conditional use permits in that neighborhood because of the large number of conditions, she added.

“We want the quiet, too,” she said. “We like the privacy. It’s just a more natural setting for learning.”

As with Tierra del Sol’s Sunland facility, which serves about 150 adults, the Van Nuys home will offer classes in such skills as cooking, house-cleaning, money management and gardening, Pudik said.

School officials have secured a five-year lease and plan to employ seven staff members, allowing the school to expand up to 28 students, she said. The school will operate on weekdays from 9 a.m to 3 p.m.

“Our hope is to provide them with educational experiences to make them more independent,” she said.

She concedes that at least part of the opposition may stem from the fact that the students are mentally handicapped and that there is a lack of public understanding of them.

“Sometimes fear of the unknown is pretty strong,” she said.

Homeowners met with an attorney last week to review their legal options in fighting the school’s plans, but the costs of seeking a court injunction are prohibitive, Heath said.

Although one resident was said to be considering organizing a demonstration at the school, Pudik and Heath said they hope to avoid protests at its opening.