Plan to Replace Air Guard With Fair Stirs Anger

A proposal by state Sen. Alan Robbins to create a home for the San Fernando Valley Fair by ousting an Air National Guard unit from the Sepulveda Basin has stirred up a political battle pitting Robbins against area residents, the Army Corps of Engineers and federal lawmakers from the Valley.

Provisions suggested by Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and included in the proposed state budget would require the Air Guard squadron to move from its 25.7-acre site on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys to Hansen Dam to make the Van Nuys site available as a permanent headquarters for the soon-to-be homeless fair.

Under the little-noticed stipulation, no money could be spent from a $110,000 state National Guard construction account until the guard “has completed plans for the location of a new base” for the 261st Combat Communications Squadron.

Special Provision

Robbins also authored a provision stating that the National Guard’s “highest priority for capital outlay in the 1987-88 fiscal year shall be the completion of all necessary plans for a new base . . . in the Hansen Dam area.”

Even if Robbins’ proposal overcomes considerable opposition, it would take at least three years to move the squadron, guard officials said. And it would take even longer to complete the environmental and bureaucratic requirements to turn the site into a fairground, officials said.

In an interview Wednesday, Robbins acknowledged that, if the provision is included in the budget that is adopted, he will be “holding hostage” the entire National Guard construction fund--including money for an armory the guard wants to build in Ukiah--to require the guard to vacate the land on Victory Boulevard.

Deukmejian Silent

The proposed, $41.1-billion spending plan is bottled up by a partisan stalemate over Gov. George Deukmejian’s $700-million tax rebate plan. Deukmejian’s office has not taken a position on Robbins’ proposal, a spokesman for the governor said Wednesday.

The fair needs a new home because it will be evicted after this summer from a 51-acre site at California State University, Northridge that the university plans to develop. The fair’s board voted in December to seek a permanent home in the Sepulveda Basin from among three sites recommended in a November, 1986, report prepared by a consultant.

Robbins has long been the most influential figure in keeping the fair alive. But his action comes amid growing opposition, both to moving the fair to the basin and to relocating the guard squadron to Hansen Dam.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Tarzana), whose district includes the 2,097-acre basin, has informed Robbins that he opposes locating the fair in the basin. In a May 21 letter to the state senator, Beilenson said 35 acres of adjacent parkland would have to be added to the 25-acre National Guard site to provide the 60 acres the fair consultant said it needs. Robbins replied in an interview that the fair could make do with 25 acres.

Last Open Space

“The Sepulveda Basin is the last large area of open space in the entire San Fernando Valley,” Beilenson wrote. His office, the Army Corps of Engineers and community leaders are working “to ensure that as much land as possible in the basin remains open,” he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which owns both the basin and the Hansen Dam site, has also expressed opposition. In a June 5 letter to Robbins, a corps representative called Robbins’ proposal “an unrealistic and inappropriate endeavor.”

Col. D. Fred Butler, the corps’ Los Angeles District engineer, said there is no land safe from flooding at Hansen Dam that could be used for the National Guard. Furthermore, he said, when the Sepulveda Basin’s master plan and environmental impact statement was developed, “one of the most controversial issues with the public was attracting large numbers of visitors to the basin on a continuous basis.”

Fair Called Inappropriate

Although a five- to 10-day fair would be acceptable, Butler wrote, “I do not feel a permanent facility of this type is an appropriate use within the basin, nor is it appropriate on federal land.”

The corps has previously said it could take federal agencies as long as six years to conduct the environmental and planning studies necessary to decide whether to allow the fair board to lease or acquire property in the flood-control basin.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) said in an interview this week that he would “very strongly oppose” moving the National Guard to Hansen Dam, which is in his district, because “we want to work on developing the dam as a recreational facility.”

Opposition also comes from area residents. The Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., which represents 500 households, decided earlier this year to oppose the basin as a permanent fair site because it would involve construction of buildings on what is now open space.

“We think it would have a very serious impact on the natural nature of the whole area,” association President David Read said. “There would be a tremendous influx of people.”

Some residents of the neighborhood fear that the fair would bring traffic, noise and crime, said Gerald Silver, president of the Homeowners of Encino. His organization has not taken a stand on the proposal, he said, but “there’s been a good deal of resistance to the idea among our members.”

Fear of Stabbings

“Most people have no objection to something along the lines of a county fair in Kansas in 1936, with animals and pie contests,” he said. But homeowners worry that the fair will attract crowds to pop music concerts “and create the kind of troubles they had with Street Scene downtown, where there were fights and stabbings,” he said.

They also worry that, to remain afloat financially, the fair would have to play host to weekend activities the year-round, such as car shows and rock concerts, he said.

“If it weren’t for rock concerts, carnival rides and the midway atmosphere, the San Fernando Valley Fair would have folded decades ago,” said Bennett J. Mintz, a member of the board of directors of Homeowners of Encino. “To take the one remaining greenbelt in the Valley and turn it into a parking, pollution and crime problem would be a tragedy. We’ll fight this.”

Robbins said he had spoken to homeowners groups in the area and believes they favor moving the fair to the site. He said he would propose laws forbidding rock concerts there, and that, “If anyone tries to hold a rock concert there, I promise to go down and personally unhook the speakers.”

Opposition to Silos

He said he would drop the proposal--”with a tear in my eye”--if there is much community opposition, but he did not think homeowners favor “leaving the missile silos there.”

Before the Combat Communications Squadron moved there in 1972, the site was the control center for the Nike anti-aircraft missiles that ringed the Valley in the 1950s and 1960s. Nikes were phased out by the Pentagon in the 1960s and the underground missile launching pits were converted to storerooms and workshops years ago.

The squadron, which has about 200 members, recently was described by its commanding officer, Maj. Rick Testa, as “a small-town telephone company on wheels.” It provides radio guidance to pilots in combat, computer and telephone links between offices, communications with other military services and international satellite telephone hookups.

The squadron has been assigned to provide communications for state and federal officials when a large earthquake shakes the Los Angeles area, according to Testa and Maj. Steve Mensik, spokesman for the California National Guard headquarters in Sacramento.

Hansen Dam ‘Ideal Site’

Although some squadron members have said privately they do not want to go, Mensik said the guard does not want to hang onto the Sepulveda Basin site if there is a public demand for it, “and the Hansen Dam site would be ideal for us.”

Guard commanders, who previously opposed moving, “changed their minds,” Robbins said, after he promised to find a better home for the unit. In addition, the Valley Fair pledged substantial facilities for National Guard recruiting at the fair next month.

The guard would benefit by gaining new buildings constructed specifically for the squadron, which now must use the former Army missile site “where the facilities are not ideal for an Air Force communications squadron,” Mensik said.

The fair, which features entertainment, livestock and agricultural exhibits, food, rides, and games, is held for five days annually in mid-July. More than 65,000 people attended in 1986.

Considered as permanent locations, besides the basin, were the Los Angeles Pierce College campus in Woodland Hills and an area near the Tujunga Wash near Hansen Dam. The fair board selected the basin because of its accessibility to freeways and the prospect of low rent.