Panel OKs Golf Course for Campus

WOODLAND HILLS — Amid a backdrop of financial turmoil and leadership woes, Pierce College’s governing council approved a controversial proposal Tuesday to build an 18-hole golf course and a wealth of new agricultural facilities at the school.

The mood was subdued as about 130 people, many of them students, streamed into the campus center for the Pierce College Council vote. Even the usual array of “geese not golf” and “trees not tees” posters lofted at recent protests was in short supply, with only a few people toting the placards.

Several students favoring the development--some of them members of a recently formed “Save Our Students” group pushing for improved facilities at the 50-year-old campus--reminded the council before the vote of Pierce’s long wish list for new classrooms and other equipment.

“We need new technology. We need new labs. We need new buildings,” said Johnathan Brill, the student group’s 18-year-old founder. “Open-land development is one of the only ways to build a future for us.”

Meanwhile, those opposed to developing one of the San Fernando Valley’s last remaining large open spaces countered that the key to the school’s fiscal recovery lies in the continued agricultural use of the farmland.

Margo Murman, founder of the Coalition to Save the Farm, predicted that agriculture production at Pierce could generate as much as $5 million a year. Another speaker suggested sponsoring a campus haunted house or autumn “cornfield maze” to pull in money.

But after all the arguments were delivered, the 24-member council followed the recommendation made last month by a Pierce task force to adopt a plan by developer Eddie Milligan, operator of the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Lake View Terrace. Milligan designed the winning Qvale/Colbert Golf Properties proposal with professional golfer Jim Colbert and Kjell Qvale, a San Francisco businessman.

“I think we can only benefit from this,” said Martin Mota, a computer science professor and chairman of the Pierce College Council. “It’s a win-win situation for the students and the community.”

The proposal now heads to E. Bing Inocencio, Pierce’s lame-duck president. Inocencio, a strong advocate of developing the school’s open space, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The ultimate decision about the land belongs to the Los Angeles Community College District, which plans to consider the proposal March 10. Elizabeth Garfield, president of the board of trustees, said Tuesday that the district recently hired an asset manager to evaluate possibilities for the Pierce property.

“We wanted to make sure we had someone with real expertise on land-use issues guiding us,” Garfield said. The board may postpone a decision until it receives the asset manager’s recommendations.

“There’s a desire on the board’s part to move the process along,” she said, “but we want to make sure we do it correctly.”

The decision caps a long debate over the fate of about 240 acres of agricultural land at Pierce. The controversy was rekindled last spring when the college council unanimously approved a suggestion by Milligan to build a golf course and new agricultural buildings.

*

As even the arguments of development opponents show, money is driving the debate. Once the jewel of the college district, Pierce is now the poorest campus in the system. Its enrollment has plummeted to 12,200--half of what it was a decade ago--and the school is burdened with a $650,000 deficit and sagging infrastructure.

In November, Pierce’s troubles led to a decision by the district board of trustees not to renew Inocencio’s contract.

The Milligan proposal, one of three bids considered by the college, would use less than the full acreage available for lease. The proposed golf course, driving range, club house and other golf facilities stretch across about 145 acres roughly bounded by Victory Boulevard on the north, the southern edge of the campus, De Soto Avenue on the west and Stadium Way on the east. The plan includes a three-hole practice area that would host a youth golf program.

Milligan said his plan would provide about $1 million per year and includes the donation of the agricultural facilities, worth about $3 million, to Pierce.