Zoning Official Troubled by Protest on High School for Disturbed Teens

A city zoning official said Monday that he has “major reservations” about a proposal by a high school for disturbed teen-agers to relocate to a 15-acre hillside site in Tujunga.

Assistant Los Angeles Zoning Administrator Robert Janovici said the heated objections of Tujunga residents made him question whether to approve an application for a conditional use permit requested by the Erickson Center for Adolescent Advancement.

Officials of the school want to move it from an industrial area in Tarzana to the Tujunga facility formerly occupied by Sunair Home for Asthmatic Children, which closed in January, 1986.

‘Major Reservations’ Voiced

‘I have major reservations about approving the request as it now stands,” Janovici said after a procession of homeowners complained at a hearing that the school, which serves students 13 to 18 years old, would bring drugs and traffic congestion to their neighborhood and would decrease property values.

But Janovici said he will not rule on the application until a group of residents meet with Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the area and who will make a recommendation on the permit.

Representatives of the Erickson Center, who also spoke at the hearing, said students are closely supervised by a staff of 58.

The school now has 72 students, 44 of whom live in dormitories on the premises, Director Ian Hunter said. Students have “normal or better I.Q.s,” but have had serious problems in other schools, such as running away or fighting, he said.

Mort Schwartz, an engineering consultant hired by the school, said the former Sunair facility would require little modification to make it appropriate for the teen-age students, although it would need more on-site parking.

Says There’s ‘No Threat’

“I sincerely believe that this program represents no threat, no danger and no disruption to the surrounding community,” Schwartz said.

The hearing at the Van Nuys Women’s Club, the third in a series of community meetings on the issue, drew about 60 Tujunga-area residents. Although many of the 30 who spoke lauded the goals of the school, almost all attacked the proposal.

“I am sympathetic to the cause . . . but as a mother of five children I don’t feel safe having these youngsters in my neighborhood,” said Melanie Pabst, who is building a home a half-block from the proposed school site on the 7700 block of McGroarty Street. “We moved to the Sunland-Tujunga area because we felt it was a really nice residential area. We probably would not have built there had we known about the facility going in.”

Sylvia Gross, vice president of the Sunland-Tujunga Assn. of Residents, said the school “would impose a resounding material detriment to the whole neighborhood on its property values . . . but no respite from property taxes, increased traffic and constant activity impinging on the whole neighborhood’s family life style . . . It’s like living next door to an insane asylum.”

Roberta Weintraub, Los Angeles school board member who represents the Sunland-Tujunga area, was among those speaking in favor of the permit. Her son, who died in an automobile accident last year, had attended the Erickson Center for one year, she said.

“I think that having this school in the community will be very helpful,” Weintraub said. “It’s one of the finest schools of its kind.”