Foes of Relocating School Plead Case to Cautious Wachs

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs Saturday faced more than 100 angry Sunland-Tujunga residents who demanded that he oppose moving a high school for troubled teen-agers into the community.

Wachs, whose district was redrawn three months ago to include the Sunland-Tujunga area, told residents he would hear them out but made no firm commitment on what he would recommend to city zoning administrator Frank Eberhard.

“From what I know at this point, I couldn’t support the application at this time,” he told the group. “There’s just too much concern in the community.”

But many residents said the councilman’s public forum was merely giving lip service to their concerns that moving the school into their hillside neighborhood would lower property values and increase traffic and crime.

“He’s patronizing us,” said Janet Sadler, who gave Wachs a petition with 1,043 signatures of nearby residents opposed to the relocation. “We want him to take a stand behind the community. We want his voice to be the community’s voice.”

Administrators of the Erickson Center for Adolescent Advancement, a special-education high school and residential program for 13- to 17-year-olds, have asked the city for a conditional-use permit to move into the old Sunair Home for Asthmatic Children, which closed last year. The Erickson center is now in an industrial area of Tarzana.

Erickson wants to lease from a group of investors who plan to buy the 15-acre Sunair site on McGroarty Street. The school wants to use the facility to treat up to 82 mentally handicapped students, with live-in facilities for up to 54 teen-agers.

Erickson executives held three community meetings at Sunair in December in an attempt to reassure prospective neighbors, but they have had little success.

At Wachs’ urging, the city zoning administrator’s decision on whether to grant the conditional-use permit was delayed until next month. The councilman said he wanted to meet with the community before making a written recommendation on whether the permit should be granted.