Groups Plan to Intensify Fight Against Drug Center

Phoenix House President Mitchell S. Rosenthal stood confidently outside a federal bankruptcy courtroom last week where his New York-based drug services company had just won the right to buy the bankrupt Lake View Medical Center.

“Youthful drug abuse is the most significant problem we face today,” he told reporters, describing plans to turn the hospital into the Nancy Reagan Center for drug abuse treatment.

“The minute people start to look at it substantively and go beyond their fears, they begin to see that,” he continued, tailoring his impromptu speech to fit an earlier inquiry about neighborhood opposition to the project.

But down the hallway and around the corner, Lake View Terrace community leader Lewis Snow stood at a pay phone making the first of many calls to fuel a grass-roots attack on the permit Phoenix House needs to convert the medical center into the Nancy Reagan Center.

“I’ve seen conditional-use permits tied up for years,” Snow said after he hung up the phone. “I personally have tied up zone changes for seven or eight months. This is round one of a 15-round fight.”

The next six months will show which man’s confident view will prevail. But already it is clear that the gap between Phoenix House and some Lake View Terrace residents will not gracefully disappear.

Residents Picket

On Sunday, more than 100 Lake View Terrace residents picketed the hospital carrying signs that read, “Put it in Nancy Reagan’s backyard,” “Does this mean bars on our windows?” and two worn by dogs that said, “Phoenix House treats Lake View Terrace like I treat hydrants.”

It was far from the first public outburst of opposition. During the six weeks since Phoenix House’s intentions to buy the hospital were announced, there have been a slew of community meetings, an avalanche of petitions and the beginnings of a letter-writing campaign.

But the first official public meeting on the proposed Nancy Reagan Center is yet to come.

Because the Lake View Medical Center is officially zoned for agriculture use, Phoenix House plans to apply for a conditional-use permit within the next three weeks, said Vice President Larraine Mohr.

Project planner Sue Chang said that if city planners determine that the proposed drug center is essentially a private school, it would require a conditional-use permit and the permit application will be heard by the board of zoning administrators. If planners decide that the facility is a drug rehabilitation center, Phoenix House may instead have to request a zoning variance which would be heard by the Planning Commission, Chang said.

Either way, the review would take 75 to 90 days, Chang said.

However, if either the Lake View Terrace residents or Phoenix House appeal the initial permit decision to the Board of Zoning Appeals and the City Council, Chang said time needed to process the application could rise to between 165 and 195 days.

200-Day Option

Phoenix House is counting on cooling community opposition enough to complete the review process within six months. Its option to buy the property--secured with a $200,000 deposit--expires in 200 days.

But Snow, president of the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn., and Lynne Cooper, an officer with the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., said members of their organizations would work to drag out the process as long as possible.

“Everyone realizes that Phoenix House is totally inappropriate for our community,” Cooper said. “We will appeal at every point. We will do everything we can to stop them from meeting their 200-day limit.”

Chief among the community’s concerns are that some of the 150 adolescents and 60 adults Phoenix House proposes to have at the drug treatment center will bring more crime, drugs and perhaps arson to their neighborhoods. The possibility that such a facility might deflate property values also has been mentioned often at community meetings.

“This is not going to be a Betty Ford program, you’re not going to have Chevy Chase walking out of there,” Snow said. “This is not a glamorous program, not a drug center for the rich and famous. This is a program for kids from the court system, kids who have been involved with selling drugs, burglaries, purse snatchings and strong-arms to get money to support their drug problem.”

Mohr and Rosenthal said they understood the neighbors’ fears. They have heard the same complaints in each community they have approached. But they said those fears are unfounded because of Phoenix House’s top-notch staff, careful screening of applicants and strict rules.

As Mohr told an angry crowd at one of the community meetings, “The parade of horribles that you envision is not Phoenix House.”

The neighbors’ plans for continuing their fight include letters to First Lady Nancy Reagan imploring her to ask Phoenix House to look for other sites, meetings with elected city officials and negotiations with an attorney with political connections at City Hall.

George J. Mihlsten, an attorney who has represented numerous clients before city boards and the City Council, has said he is volunteering his services to Phoenix House. Snow said the community needs someone of Mihlsten’s stature to make sure its objections are heard.

“What we plan on doing is fighting fire with fire,” Snow said.

Among the suggestions being talked about in Lake View Terrace these days are wooing a hospital or senior citizen center to make a counteroffer or raising enough money to make a community bid on the property.

Mohr insisted that Phoenix House has no greater pull on politicians’ will than any other organization. She said she will spend the next few months meeting with community members to try to alleviate their fears about the project.

“We’ll do whatever’s necessary, whether that be talking to people one-on-one, in groups of fives or 10s or larger,” Mohr said. “The sky’s the limit.”