MAR VISTA : Homeowners Oppose Children’s Center

As soon as they hear about plans for construction amid their single-family homes, members of the grass-roots Del Rey Homeowners and Neighbors Assn. mobilize as if they are being invaded.

In the last two years, the 900-member association has successfully battled condominium developers, the Price Club and builders who wanted to put a garbage transfer station in the neighborhood.

Now, the group has a new adversary: 25 toddlers, many of whom suffer from the effects of prenatal drug exposure.

The Westside Children’s Center, a therapeutic nursery, hopes to relocate from Santa Monica to a small industrial site at 12120 Wagner St., amid a neighborhood of single-family homes.

The nonprofit group, which receives private and public funding, also provides programs for foster parents and day care for the children.

But some residents are not putting out the welcome mat, saying the center will bring traffic and noise, and is not compatible with the houses in the area.

“It doesn’t matter if the center is doing the best work of the lord,” said Paul Davis, who lives near Wagner Street. “We don’t want to compromise the integrity and fragile peace of our single-family neighborhood.”

Davis said 167 residents have signed a petition he circulated opposing the center, whose application to move onto the site goes before a zoning commissioner May 19.

Supporters of the center, however, say the residential community is the perfect place for the organization. Many of the children’s parents live on the Westside, and the site abuts an elementary school. Center officials said traffic and noise will not be a problem because the site includes fencing and a large parking lot.

The children’s center is eager to move onto the Wagner Street site before the lease on its building in the 2500 block of 5th Street expires at the end of next month. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District plans to build a school where the organization is now located.

Center employees have been bewildered by the neighborhood opposition, which began in December when the center’s plans to care for up to 50 children as old as age 9 first came to light after it applied for permits.

“It’s just shocking--we’re amazed people in the neighborhood are so against our work with children,” said Pat Darroch, executive director of the Westside Children’s Center.

Most of the 2.6-acre site in which the center wants to locate is in an area zoned for single-family homes. The previous occupant, IDL Laboratories, an air filtration equipment manufacturer, operated there for 30 years under a conditional-use permit granted by the city. The center is seeking such a permit.

Jeff Prang, a spokesman for Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, said office files from previous decades show virtually no neighborhood opposition to the industrial uses of the lot.

Darroch said she believes some residents are resisting her organization for other reasons.

“We’ve heard such awful things: that we’ll be bringing in AIDS babies, that alcoholic men will be sleeping on the site, that drug needles will be on people’s lawns,” she said. “It’s so untrue--these are small children who through early intervention have a chance to return to a regular school. We’ll be bringing a service to people that live in the community.”

Santa Monica police say the center has never caused problems.