San Marcos Wins N. County Campus : Former Poultry Farm Recommended by Cal State Trustees for SDSU Branch

The City of San Marcos on Wednesday triumphed over Carlsbad in a long-running civic bidding war when a former chicken ranch in the inland community was selected as the site for a North County campus of San Diego State University.

The California State University Board of Trustees agreed in closed session Tuesday to direct its staff to begin negotiations to purchase the former Prohoroff Poultry Farms, a site near California 78 and adjacent to Twin Oaks Valley Road. The board’s action was made public in open session Wednesday.

“This is a great day for our county,” said Lee Grissom, a trustee from San Diego. “The board was very impressed with the economic expansion in North San Diego County, and now they have committed to a site where we will provide quality higher education for that corner of the world.”

University officials said the San Marcos site was selected from among four parcels because of its central location, accessibility and easily developable topography. In addition, the other leading site--a 600-acre tract in Carlsbad known as Bressi Ranch--had aroused concerns because of its proximity to Palomar Airport.

“We were worried about the possible safety hazards posed by the flight path and about noise pollution disturbing the campus environnment,” said Trustee Roland Arnall, chairman of the committee that reviewed the sites and recommended the San Marcos parcel to the full board. “There were risks associated with the Carlsbad property that just did not seem worth taking.”

University officials said a private consultant and the Caltrans division of aeronautics cautioned against acquiring the Bressi Ranch site because of airport-related considerations. The two other sites in the running--a 2,100-acre parcel in San Marcos and a site near the intersection of College Boulevard and Cannon Road in Carlsbad--had access problems and would be too costly to develop, officials said.

News of the board’s action prompted jubilation in San Marcos, where civic leaders have aggressively marketed their city as one worthy of hosting a college and eager to cooperate with university leaders.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” Mayor Lionel Burton said. “I think we’ve been the obvious site from the beginning, but you never know until they cast the votes. This is really a big occasion for all of North County because everyone will benefit from the intellectual ferment a university brings.”

In Carlsbad, meanwhile, city officials admitted they were a bit blue over losing the campus. But they noted that the school will be a regional asset, no matter what its precise location.

“I’m disappointed, because it would have been a plum for Carlsbad to win the state university,” Councilwoman Ann Kulchin said. “But I think it’s wonderful that at long last we will have San Diego State in our neighborhood.”

Moreover, Kulchin conceded that students would probably find housing cheaper in San Marcos and pointed out that Carlsbad will soon have a private graduate school, the Batiquitos Lagoon Educational Park, within its limits.

The board’s decision clears the way for the university to begin negotiating for purchase of about 400 acres of the Prohoroff site from the Bieri-Avis development firm of Sorrento Valley. In all, the company owns about 968 acres and has offered to tailor development on the balance of the property to suit campus needs.

In addition, partner Steve Bieri said the company is willing to assist with planning on the site and will clear the property for the state. The city also plans to pitch in, using redevelopment funds to construct access roads.

Bieri, whose firm had intended to build more than 3,000 homes on the property, said he is eager to begin talks on the sale of the parcel.

“It has been a long wait and a real nail-biting experience for us,” Bieri said.

Bieri added that his firm intends to continue processing plans for the subdivision “as a backup in the event something falls through with the university.”

Neither the developer nor state officials would comment on what price the university is likely to pay for the land. However, SDSU President Thomas Day said he predicts the state will spend at least $100 million, including the land purchase, “just to open our doors.”

Despite the trustees’ commitment to a site, several hurdles must still be cleared. First, the proposal must win the approval of the California Post-Secondary Education Commission.

Then, the state Legislature must give it the nod and approve construction funds. Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside), a longtime advocate of a North County SDSU branch, said he does not believe that funds for the land purchase can be authorized before the end of the current legislative session Aug. 29.

Although the governor was initially said to be reluctant to authorize funds for the project, Deukmejian expressed support for the campus during a visit to San Diego last month.

University officials, meanwhile, are pointing toward a massive higher education bond issue tentatively slated for the November ballot as the most likely funding source for the school.

The SDSU branch would be the first major addition to the 19-campus state university system in two decades, according to Deputy Provost Jack Smart. In 1965, trustees approved the construction of Cal State Bakersfield, which opened in 1969.

Since then, enrollment at several state schools--including Stanislaus and Bakersfield--has lagged well behind projections, and trustees have been leery of approving any additional expansion. Now, in addition to the North County branch, proposals for campuses in Contra Costa and Ventura counties are afloat.

“I don’t think this represents a trend but rather a recognition of some very convincing growth patterns in places like northern San Diego County,” said CSU Board of Trustees Chairman Dale Ride, father of astronaut Sally Ride.

As envisioned, the North County branch would initially be an upper-division and graduate center designed as an alternative to SDSU’s main campus. Local community colleges would be expected to provide the lower-division course requirements.

Most observers agree, however, that it won’t be long before the center evolves into a full-scale, four-year school ready to secede from the mother campus. Such a pattern has considerable precedent in the state university system. The campuses at Bakersfield and Sonoma began as satellites of Fresno and San Francisco, respectively.

A consultant’s report commissioned by the university recommended the immediate construction of a four-year school, predicting a potential enrollment of 21,000 students by the year 2010. The study projected a population of 1.3 million by 2010 in a so-called North County service area, including southern Riverside and Orange counties.

President Day said the decision to “make the transition to a four-year program is a board matter, a policy change, and I can’t say when they’ll choose to act.” But he speculated that population growth in North County would create demand for a full-scale campus within 15 years.

Efforts to build a North County campus date to 1968, when Craven introduced legislation that would have created a branch. That effort failed, but a decade later, the senator helped secure a small state grant that enabled North County’s existing SDSU center to open.

Enrollment at that center, a modest facility housed in rented space in a San Marcos industrial park, has climbed steadily over the years. Last semester there were 740 students enrolled, an increase of 79% over the previous spring.

Moreover, conditions at SDSU’s main campus on the eastern edge of Mission Valley have become almost intolerably cramped.