Agency Files for Permit to Run Nancy Reagan Drug Center

Officials for Phoenix House have filed an application for an environmental review, the first step in obtaining a conditional-use permit to operate a controversial Lake View Terrace drug rehabilitation center named after First Lady Nancy Reagan.

The nonprofit drug services agency filed the application with the Los Angeles City Planning Department earlier this week, said Larraine Mohr, a Phoenix House official. The environmental review is designed to measure traffic, noise and pollution that may result from a project.

In May, Phoenix House negotiated a $7.7-million purchase option on the bankrupt Lake View Medical Center with plans to convert it into the Nancy Reagan Center for drug abuse treatment.

Under the purchase option agreement, Phoenix House has until mid-December to obtain a conditional-use permit to run the drug treatment center and school at the hospital.

But the proposed drug treatment center has met with strong opposition from area residents who fear that the center will bring more crime and drugs into a neighborhood already plagued with those problems.

“We’re not opposed to the program; we’re opposed to the site,” said Lewis Snow, chairman of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. “It’s in the middle of an area that has great drug activity. I don’t think you have to be Einstein to figure out what’s going to happen.”

Although Mohr said Phoenix House is “absolutely committed to the Lake View Terrace site,” Snow said the homeowners group will continue efforts to block the center.