Coastline College Trustees Seek Plans to Develop Land

Trustees of the Coast Community College District unanimously adopted a compromise resolution Wednesday night that could eventually lead to development of 14.4 acres of district-owned land in Fountain Valley in conjunction with private developers.

Chancellor David A. Brownell’s resolution would allow submission of proposals by private parties to develop the Warner Avenue parcel until Oct. 21, when the trustees would consider them. The board can adopt any one proposal, combine more than one or reject all, general counsel John C. Lautsch said.

The vote came after a lengthy discussion by the board of reports that it was considering moving its headquarters, now in temporary buildings next to the Orange Coast College campus in Costa Mesa, into Coastline Community College’s only permanent building, which is on Warner Avenue in Fountain Valley, across the street from the parcel in question.

Trustee Walter G. Howald denied an Orange County Register article that said he had discussed such a relocation plan.

Trustee Conrad Nordquist spoke out against any such idea, drawing applause when he said: “So long as I sit on this board, Coastline College will not be dismantled. I have no desire that Coastline be taken away or dissolved or partially removed or chipped away at.”

Enrollment Decline Feared

Opponents of any such move fear that placing the district headquarters on the campus would lead to a decline in enrollment at Coastline College and detract from its appeal to students.

Fred Roth, founding chairman of the Orange County Senior Citizens Council, said his constituents were “disturbed” by the idea.

“When I read in the newspaper that someone on the board is considering . . . taking a position that Coastline is something to be chopped up. . . . There has to have been informal discussion about it,” said Roth, who lives in Huntington Beach.

Carol Barnes, assistant dean of guidance and financial aid at Coastline, urged the board to abandon the alleged plan, saying that “a concept of centrality” is important to its students.

Coastline’s Academic Senate voted Tuesday to encourage trustees to investigate alternatives to moving its headquarters.

Fewer Students

There have been suggestions in the past that the district could build new headquarters on empty land on the Orange Coast College or Golden West College campuses.

When Coastline opened in 1976, most of the nearly 19,000 students were adults. Enrollment peaked at nearly 30,000 at the school’s 140 class sites in 1981.

Financial trouble sprouted in 1982, when the state legislature decided that subsidization of avocational and recreation courses was wasting tax dollars. Coastline was forced to drop many of its courses, especially telecourse classes, and all three schools suffered enrollment declines, said Drew Simpson, director of public information for Coastline College.

Coastline beefed up its offerings with more occupational courses. Enrollment continued to decline, although not as much as at Orange Coast and Golden West in the last four years, he said.

The school’s enrollment dropped to a record low this year.

Next year it must undergo a regular re-accreditation evaluation. The school has been criticized on the ground that it does not have enough full-time teachers or academically challenging courses.

But instructors disagree, pointing to the “Weekend College,” where students can earn associate degrees in accounting and business on Friday and Saturday nights, and the World Trade Center Institute, where students are trained in fields such as international finance.