Sylmar Site Is Favored for New Police Academy : Training: The 24-acre lot near Olive View Medical Center is among six potential locations shown to a handful of visitors. The L.A. City Council will make the final choice.

A 24-acre lot next to Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar appears to be the strongest of six sites under consideration for a new Los Angeles Police Academy, city officials said Saturday.

“There is a leaning toward Olive View among those of us who have worked on this,” said David J. Mansen, a private consultant hired by the city to draft environmental impact reports on the sites. But Mansen cautioned that an official recommendation has not yet been made.

Mansen and other members of a team of city officials developing proposals for the academy are scheduled to present their findings to the Police Commission in August. The final choice will be made by the City Council.

But during a city-sponsored tour Saturday of the three potential sites in the San Fernando Valley, team members agreed that the Olive View site was probably the strongest contender. Moreover, each of the other five sites has significant drawbacks, city officials said.

One proposal calls for building a new facility at Elysian Park near Dodger Stadium--where the present academy is--while keeping some historic buildings at the 14-acre site.

Building an academy at any of the six sites would present environmental, financial or logistic difficulties, but the county-owned Olive View location seems to pose fewer problems for the Police Department, Mansen said.

The six sites were culled from a list of about 1,900 possible locations in Los Angeles County. The academy is expected to cost $40 million to $50 million, supported by a bond issue approved by city voters in 1989.

Although rebuilding on the current site would have the least effect on the environment, police officials would prefer to build a new facility to train 540 to 720 recruits a year, while keeping the old academy to train veteran officers, said Steve Hatfield, a Police Department planner.

Two proposed sites are near the academy--a former railway yard and a former pottery factory. Both are privately owned and might be too expensive, said Neil Drucker of the Los Angeles public works department.

The other two Valley sites besides Olive View lie between San Fernando Road and the Golden State Freeway in Sylmar. Both are owned by the city Department of Water and Power and could be obtained at minimal cost, Drucker said. He declined to discuss specific amounts.

However, one of those locations, a 27-acre lot called the Grapevine site, contains a small temporary training site for DWP employees and may be made into a permanent training facility, DWP engineer John E. Giese said.

A 28-acre plot at the Lower Los Angeles Reservoir Basin, called the Reservoir site, includes an acre of seasonal wetland that could be damaged by construction, but the ecological value of the wetland has not been determined, Drucker said.

“The facility itself would not actually affect the wetland,” Drucker said. “But a road leading to the academy may affect the wetland.”

The major environmental concern at Olive View is an increase in traffic caused by commuting personnel, but Drucker said police cadets could be required to car-pool.

A handful of people attended the tours, including environmentalists and neighbors of the proposed sites.

Bruce Knechtges of Sylmar said he doubted traffic problems could be relieved with car-pools or street improvements. “I have this feeling they’ll make all these promises to us now, but once it’s built, we can’t do anything,” he said.