Consultant to Help Fair Find Way Into Future

Directors of the San Fernando Valley Fair on Monday awarded a $30,500 contract to a consulting firm to study the fair’s future, an action designed to help the fair find a permanent home and an identity.

Board members say they hope the four-month study will produce a report they can use to solicit money for new fairgrounds. A new site is needed because the property the fair now leases from California State University, Northridge, is scheduled to be developed as early as 1987.

The consulting firm, Landerman Associates Inc., is to examine whether a fair with an agricultural flavor is still needed in a predominantly urban Valley. Attendance in recent years has been disappointing, although it did improve this year.

Board members expressed confidence that the researchers will find that the public wants to see the annual summer event continue.

“If the picture is presented to them intelligently enough, I’m sure they are going to want it,” said Sal Buccieri, a director on the fair board.

Through a series of community workshops, a questionnaire and a telephone survey, the consultants will ask what Valley residents expect and want from the fair.

Board members did say they expect the Valley’s urban nature to be reflected in any new facilities built for the fair. The new fairgrounds would be used year-round, said Dallas Boardman, the board’s president. Permanent structures could be used for community events, and animal stalls and pens could be kept in storage most of the year.

“It’s going to be different from fairgrounds you’d have in Sacramento or Bakersfield,” Boardman predicted.

The lack of money remains the fair’s biggest problem, board members agree. The board has $3 million in the bank and a promise of $10 million from the state Legislature if it can provide $20 million in matching funds. The board has no immediate prospects of finding $20 million.

“The big question is still going to be financing,” said Mel Simas, the fair’s manager.

On Monday, Ester Armstrong, the assistant director of the state division of fairs and exposition, told the board that her office could not provide financial assistance if new fairgrounds are built. She suggested that the board seek grants from private industry.

A survey recently completed by the state Department of General Services identified four large properties that might be suitable for a fair site. The board is especially interested in two of the properties.

2 Sites of Keen Interest

One is in the Hansen Dam area south of the Foothill Freeway. The other is Los Angeles Community College District property at Devonshire Street and Wilbur Avenue, Buccieri said. A fair board bid to purchase the latter property was rebuffed earlier this year.

The board also has expressed interest in moving the fair to the Sepulveda Basin and entering into a partnership with the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation, which is attempting to raise funds to build an arts complex there.

Any serious negotiations for the purchase of any property have been postponed until the consultant’s study is completed, Buccieri said.