Sale of Building to Drug Treatment Center Gets OK

After weeks of debate, the Torrance Planning Commission has approved a nonprofit drug and alcohol treatment center’s purchase of the old Pacific Telegraph building.

The commission’s 4-0 vote will allow the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency to move into the vacant building. The purchase had been held up in escrow since June pending the commission’s decision.

Business owners had argued that a treatment center did not belong in the commercial area, but a planning department official said the commission concluded that the nonprofit group, which has been located in a building around the corner for the last 23 years, fits in with the commercial scheme of the business district.