Other Sites May Follow : Pierce College to Sell Unused Area of Campus

Taking new steps to condense its sprawling Pierce College campus in Woodland Hills while fattening its coffers, the Los Angeles Community College District has moved to sell one parcel of school property and announced its intent to dispose of two more.

The district will sell a 3.3-acre section of the campus next month and will consider selling another 9 acres later this year, officials said Thursday.

Minimum bids of $600,000 are being sought for the first parcel, an abandoned orchard on the southwest corner of Oxnard Street and Winnetka Avenue.

Officials said they have not completed sale or lease plans for the other two parcels, both situated north of Victory Boulevard on opposite sides of Winnetka.

One of those sites is used by the Woodland Hills Sunrise Little League, which has built baseball fields on 4.7 acres. The other is a four-acre parcel used by a 100-child, college-run day-care center.

The decision to dispose of the land follows last October’s leasing of 17 acres of college land east of Winnetka to Shir Chadash, a Jewish congregation. Shir Chadash will pay $3 million to the college district over 75 years.

“The decision has been made by the board of trustees that the financial condition of the district is such that they should sell land that has no use to the college,” said David Czamanske, contract coordinator for the college district.

Separated From Main Campus

Czamanske noted that all three sites are separated by heavily traveled streets from the main, 375-acre Pierce College campus. None is used in educational programs or for the college’s agriculture program.

The Oxnard Street property is zoned for residential use and a 12-lot, tentative tract map has been filed for the land with the City of Los Angeles to make the site attractive to buyers, he said.

Czamanske said there is a “very good chance” that the two Victory Boulevard parcels will be leased instead of sold. Their value will probably depend on the type of zoning that lessees can obtain, he said. Both are now designated for agricultural uses.

Staff members of the 12-year-old child-care center have been told that they will not go out of business, but that a move could be in the works. Pierce College President David B. Wolf said that land may be difficult to dispose of because it has been mentioned as a site for a trolley station if a cross-Valley light-rail project is built on nearby Southern Pacific tracks.

“As long as it’s in limbo, it may be difficult to put up for bid,” Wolf said. The Little League site may be hard to lease or sell because “the Little League is not anxious to leave and would resist it,” he said.