Lake View Terrace Mounts Opposition to Detention Center

A neighborhood campaign against the proposed conversion of a defunct Lake View Terrace hospital into a detention center for juvenile delinquents gained momentum Tuesday when residents began circulating petitions opposing the project.

“We are serving notice that we want to have some say about what goes in there,” said Betty Rockwell, secretary of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., a homeowners group that is spearheading the protest in the middle-class, mainly blue-collar community.

“We are saying we don’t want a juvenile hall. We want a hospital.”

David Enver, a member of the board of directors of the bankrupt Lake View Medical Center, told about 300 angry residents who crowded into the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center on Monday night that the hospital will be sold at auction to satisfy its debts if no bid is submitted soon to federal bankruptcy officials to purchase the property.

“It’s up for grabs,” he said.

Executives of several hospitals, including Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, have been shown the 145-bed Lake View Medical Center since it was closed in March, Enver said, but so far none has offered to buy it.

“If somebody makes a reasonable offer, federal trustees will take it,” he said.

The plan to convert the hospital into a detention center for 200 juveniles came to light May 6 when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors told a Utah prison management company that it must open a juvenile facility in order to qualify for a permit to operate Southern California’s first privately run prison.

The company plans to establish a minimum-security prison for 100 state parole violators to replace the existing Artesian Oaks juvenile camp on upper Bouquet Canyon Road near Saugus. Barry Nidorf, County Probation Department chief, said the board linked the two correctional facilities because existing juvenile institutions are too crowded to accommodate the 48 boys at Artesian Oaks.

“We’re short 300 beds” for juvenile offenders in the county, Nidorf said. “Every bed we close is a cause of concern to me.”

Executives of Management and Training Corp., the private company, have inspected the hospital and see it as an excellent site for a juvenile detention center, said the company’s executive vice president, Sam Hunter.

First Public Session

Monday night’s meeting, organized during the weekend, was the first time residents of the community had made known their views about the hospital property.

“I hope this isn’t the only place they want to put a juvenile hall,” said one homeowner. “They’d better be looking in Beverly Hills as well.”

“We don’t even want to be considered as a proposed site,” said resident Linda Olivas.

“It’s a prison,” warned Candice Elder, another resident. “Don’t let any of you be fooled.”

Leaders of the Pacoima Chamber of Commerce pledged their support to the homeowners. Representatives of the community’s elected leaders, including Los Angeles City Councilman Howard Finn and County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, assured the residents that their bosses will join the fight against converting the hospital into a juvenile detention center.

“There’s no way it would ever be approved by the City Council,” said Anne Dunn, Finn’s field representative. Dunn said Finn’s office will help the community find another use for the property.

Mission College Cited

“I thought, since Mission College hasn’t found a permanent home, that it might go there,” said one resident.

Mission College, a community college, has operated out of storefronts and high schools in the northeast Valley for more than a decade. Classes for 3,207 students are now held in rented storefronts in San Fernando.

The California Community Colleges Board of Governors has allocated $9 million to build a permanent home for the school, and final plans are awaiting the state Legislature’s approval of a $30-million loan from the community college capital outlay fund.

Meanwhile, Lake View Terrace residents have formed six committees and started letter-writing and petition campaigns against the juvenile center. Henry Bernard, president of the homeowners group, said residents will decide at another meeting what type of facility they desire on the property, then campaign to get what they want.