DRUG FOE DRAWS BATTLE LINE

East Palo Alto: He fights to keep rehab center out of his neighborhood.

In 1991, Dennis Scherzer, who patrolled his property with a shotgun
because of the violent drug trade ravaging East Palo Alto, shot and
wounded a gun-toting youth. In 1997, he helped residents close down a
crack house. A year later, he and others drove a paroled rapist out of
the city.

Now, Scherzer, general manager of the city's sanitary district, is on
to another cause. Backed by district board members, he is leading the
charge to prevent Free At Last, a drug rehabilitation center, from
taking up residence in the sewer district's neighborhood. He and board
members say the center will bring down property values and exacerbate
a drug trade problem in the area.

The sewer district, which services East Palo Alto and parts of Menlo
Park, has appealed the city planning commission's ``conditional use''
permit for the center. Tonight, the district will make its case before
the city council, which will ultimately decide the issue.

``It's not compatible with the neighborhood -- there are residences
all around,'' said Scherzer, adding that the district is also raising
procedural issues, among them a claim that it wasn't given proper
notice of the planning commission hearing. ``This corner is a raging
drug market and 46ree At Last is in the drug addict business.''

Scherzer's latest mission has politicized an issue typically outside
the purview of public agencies. But the district says, as a neighbor
within 300 feet of the proposed project, it is within its right to
lodge a protest. Other attorneys who represent sanitary districts in
the region, however, say the agency's stance is unusual.

``This is definitely not a typical position a sanitary district would
take,'' said David Schricker, who represents sanitary districts
throughout the Bay Area. ``It's an unusual situation.''

The issue pits Scherzer, an anti-drug crusader who uses aggressive
tactics to confront the drug problem, against Free At Last, which
views drug rehabilitation as a way to a drug-free community.

``Mr. Scherzer has worked really hard to clean up the community,''
said Priya Haji, director of Free At Last, which was founded in 1994.
``It's unfortunate that he doesn't see that what Free At Last does is
a complementary strategy to his own.''

If the council decides to deny the district's appeal and grant Free At
Last its conditional use permit, district officials may seek other
ways to halt the project, said sanitary-district attorney Gary Orton.

46ree At Last is a respected East Palo Alto institution that is among
dozens of businesses that must move out of the city's Whiskey Gulch to
make way for a $260 million redevelopment project.

High rents and limited space have made finding new homes difficult for
many of the businesses. Fears of costly delays compelled Whiskey Gulch
developers in January to offer $500,000 or more to renovate a possible
new home for several non-profit organizations that have had trouble
finding spots.

After a year-long search, Free At Last officials thought they had
found a home when St. Marks AME Zion Church agreed to lease the center
an acre of vacant land on Bay Road near Clarke Avenue. The plan is to
build 12,000 square feet of modular buildings that will house, among
other programs, an outpatient substance abuse treatment program, Haji
said.

The area is zoned as a multi-family residential area. But after a
review of the agency's proposal, the planning commission granted a
two-year conditional use permit.

The site sits just a few blocks away from the sanitary district's
headquarters on Weeks Street. Scherzer, a long-time district board
member who recently stepped down to assume the role of general
manager, keeps a video camera trained on the street outside the
district office to capture the drug transactions he says occur daily.

He has made the drug trade his crusade, earning the reputation of a
vigilante in 1991 when he shot and wounded a 17-year-old who had fired
three bullets at his house. He was not charged in the incident.

In his push to keep Free At Last out of the neighborhood, he did not
have difficulty gaining support from the board that is composed of
political allies who either ran with him or received his support in
last year's election.

Haji said if the council upholds the sewer district's appeal, it could
jeopardize Free At Last's ability to provide continuous services. And
if her program doesn't have a place to move to, it will cause delays
for developers of the University Circle project, she said.

Mayor Sharifa Wilson declined to comment on potential Whiskey Gulch
project delays, saying: ``That isn't something we should factor in. We
have to judge this on the merits of the (Free At Last) project.''