Bill Would Let the Conservancy Buy Site for Fair

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) recently transformed a little-noticed technical bill into legislation that he hopes will provide the San Fernando Valley Fair a permanent home. The move surprised just about everyone--including fair officials and other legislators, one of whom called it a “bizarre bill.”

Robbins revised a bill he had previously introduced, which merely expanded the communities covered by the fair, to allow the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to help the financially strapped fair buy a site.

Under existing law, the Conservancy is allowed to buy property on behalf of other governmental agencies to preserve open space in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, where wilderness is fast disappearing.

Never Had Authority

But the Conservancy has never had authority to buy land for a fair.

The proposed bill would form a partnership between the fair board and the Conservancy so that the Conservancy could request money from the state budget to purchase land for a fair site. Robbins said the Conservancy could act much more quickly than the fair board, which would have to obtain approval from several levels of government before buying land.

Robbins said he considers the bill another avenue in the continuing struggle to provide the fair with a home.

‘A Small, Gentle Step’

“It is really a relatively small and gentle step,” Robbins said. “The Conservancy volunteered its help.”

Since the fair was resurrected in the mid-1970s, it has been held each year on the North Campus of California State University, Northridge. But the university wants to develop the site, and the fair could be evicted before next summer.

The fair has about $4 million in the bank for a site. The state has promised the fair $10 million if it can contribute $20 million.

Robbins predicted Tuesday that a site for a new fairgrounds would be announced by the end of the summer.

Fair Not Informed

It appeared Tuesday, however, that Robbins failed to share his plans with fair officials, who are busy making last-minute arrangements for this year’s event, which will be held July 16-20.

Mel Simas, the fair’s manager, said he was never informed about the change in Robbins’ bill.

Simas said he thought the bill would merely expand the fair to include Universal City. “What’s in it for the fair, I don’t know,” he said.

Simas and two members of the fair board said talking about possible fair sites is premature until a $30,000 study is completed in four months.

Board members have said they envision fairgrounds that will be quite different from the traditional rural setting. To make the fair financially viable and more attentive to the community’s need, any new site would have to be used year-round by a broad range of Valley groups, they said.

Sal Buccieri, a board member who heads the fair’s real estate committee, said it would be undesirable to pick a site when it is unclear what kind of facilities and what kind of acreage will be needed.

When asked to explain why Robbins said a site selection is imminent, Simas replied, “No, I can’t. No comment.”

But, he said, “Anytime someone wants to help us, we’re pleased.”

Dallas Boardman, the fair’s chairman, also declined to comment on Robbins’ bill.

Mysteries Abound

Fair officials were not the only ones caught off guard.

An aura of mystery has enveloped Robbins’ bill in Sacramento as well, where it had been winding unnoticed through legislative committees. When the amended legislation reached the Assembly floor, some skeptical assemblymen, including Dennis Brown (R-Signal Hill) and Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica)--the latter called it a “bizarre bill”--demanded it receive closer scrutiny.

The Assembly referred the bill to the Natural Resources Committee, which on Tuesday heard from Joseph Edmiston, Conservancy executive director, who cautioned that the bill would not require his agency to buy land for the fair. The Conservancy, Edmiston noted, has its own problems. Last month, Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed nearly $9 million in Conservancy projects in the 1986-87 budget.

Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (D-Northridge), whose district includes the existing site of the fair, voted for the bill in committee, although she said she was “surprised” that Robbins did not consult her. “Robbins often does act on his own,” she said.