LAKE VIEW TERRACE : Phoenix Academy Open House Today

After more than five years of bitter controversy and clashes with residents who once raised the Not In My Back Yard mantle, Phoenix Academy at Lake View Terrace--a drug-treatment center and school for troubled teen-agers--will hold its official grand opening and open house today.

The public seems to have accepted the presence of the academy, which actually opened in March on 15 acres in buildings formerly occupied by the Lake View Terrace Medical Center.

Some community members had defeated a previous attempt to open the center there in 1989, when former First Lady Nancy Reagan was heavily involved in the project.

“It’s encouraging,” said Sandy Hubbard, president of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., which spearheaded the original fight against the facility. “There were many years of hostility. Now we’re neighbors, and we have to get along.”

Since opening, there have been no major problems at the facility, but lingering public concerns about security caused Councilman Richard Alarcon to delay an October vote by the Los Angeles City Council on a critical issue of tax-exempt bonds the academy needed for financing. Phoenix House Foundation, which runs the Lake View Terrace facility, is a New York City-based provider of drug treatment services, with 19 facilities around the country.

Using the bond vote for leverage, some members of the improvement association persuaded Phoenix House to implement security measures that go well beyond what is required under their city operating permit.

Prior to the council vote on the bonds, Phoenix House--which currently houses 50 students but will eventually expand to 150--resisted implementing special security measures in Lake View Terrace, stating that it is a “voluntary, non-lockup” center.

Any teen-ager who wants to leave is free to do so--but they may not be allowed back, officials have said.

But faced with the possibility of further delays on the $10-million bond issue, Phoenix House agreed to take some special steps in response to residents’ concerns, including installing an electronic locking gate at the front entrance of the facility, shoring up gaps in perimeter fencing around the academy’s grounds, and adding extra patrols and external surveillance.

The open house will be held at noon at 11600 Eldridge Ave. Mayor Richard Riordan and Gov. Pete Wilson are among those expected to attend.