City Panel OKs Juvenile Facility Near Canoga Park Businesses

A Los Angeles City Council panel approved a plan Tuesday to open a new campus for juvenile offenders in a commercial district of Canoga Park, despite concerns about putting delinquents in close contact with stores and patrons.

The council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee endorsed an agreement with the county Office of Education, spelling out operations of a 51-student Community Education Center for Canoga Park-area minors who are moving back home after a stint in the juvenile justice system.

“These are youth who are making a transition back home from probation camps,” said Margo Minecki, a spokeswoman for the county office.

“What this does is keep at-risk youth engaged throughout the day in positive activities,” she said.

The project had drawn objections from some merchants, as well as city Planning Commissioner Robert Scott, who said the site at 22142 Sherman Way was inappropriate.

“Even with conditions, there’s still no way to assure that there’s protections and a sense of protection for local retail merchants and their patrons,” Scott said.

With a new Business Improvement District just four blocks away, Scott said the juvenile facility makes no sense.

“To bring a halfway house into the middle of a business district, it has a tendency to disturb the peace and quiet of the area,” Scott said.

Some merchants had also asked the county to consider other locations for the school, according to Shelly Samborsky, president of the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce.

“I would prefer it to be in an industrial area, but this is the county’s decision,” said Samborsky.

In fact, city lawyers determined that state law gave the county power to supersede city zoning rules and use the site for a school, whether the city agreed or not. Under state law, the facility is considered to be a correctional facility, not under the jurisdiction of city ordinances.

There are about 30 such facilities in Los Angeles County.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the area, said she was able to negotiate an agreement that sets tough conditions for supervision of the students.

“They could go in by right, but I got them to agree to a precedent-setting action where they agreed to every condition they set,” Chick said.

Minecki said the school is not a boarding home. Juvenile offenders have already been sent home to live in the Canoga Park area but need three to six months in the special school, with added attention, before returning to Canoga Park High School.

When the school opens in September in an existing office building, the students will be assigned 17 to a class and will have adult supervision of after-school programs, Minecki said.

Chick said it is unfortunate that such schools are needed. “I certainly prefer to have them in a school as tightly controlled and supervised as this instead of hanging around without supervision,” she said.