Budget Sent to Governor Has Valley Projects

The $41.1-billion state budget passed by the Legislature on Wednesday includes a controversial proposal to establish a new home for the San Fernando Valley Fair by ousting an Air National Guard unit from the Sepulveda Basin.

Among other major Valley-area appropriations in the budget are two for educational construction: $8.5 million for Mission College’s permanent campus and $14.9 million for a library at California State University, Northridge.

The fiscal 1987-88 spending plan, which passed the Senate last week and the Assembly Wednesday, now goes to Gov. George Deukmejian for consideration.

Of the Valley-area projects, the most ruckus has been stirred by the National Guard proposal, placed in the budget at the request of Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys). It requires the state Military Department to complete plans to move the Air Guard squadron from its 25.7-acre Sepulveda Basin home on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys to Hansen Dam.

If the guard relocates, the Van Nuys site will become available for use by the fair. Also in the budget is $1.95 million requested by Robbins to build an exhibition building for the fair whenever a permanent site is acquired.

Bob Gibbs, a budget analyst for the state Department of Finance, said his agency opposed the allocation for the fair construction project. “We didn’t have any information to substantiate the need” for the building, Gibbs said.

Widespread Opposition

The department has not taken a position on Robbins’ guard relocation proposal. However, the plan has triggered opposition from area residents, the Army Corps of Engineers and federal lawmakers. A spokesman for the corps, which owns the basin and Hansen Dam, insisted last week that the proposal has no chance of approval.

“As far as we’re concerned, the Sepulveda question has been put to bed,” the spokesman said. “It’s not a site for a permanent facility.”

Carol Plotkin, an aide to Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Tarzana), said the congressman “is not supportive of a permanent home for the San Fernando Valley Fair in the Sepulveda Basin” because he is seeking to turn the area into a park.

“He feels that putting a fairgrounds on that federal land would be contrary to the master plan for the Sepulveda Basin,” Plotkin said.

Robbins, a member of the joint Assembly-Senate conference committee that fashioned the final budget, downplays the objections. “The fair will not be located in any area where there is substantial community opposition,” he said.

Like the fair, Sylmar’s Mission College has been seeking a permanent home for years. The school, which holds classes in storefronts scattered around the northeast Valley, will use the $8.5-million appropriation to end its 12-year search.

Last year, Deukmejian failed to include the allocation in the budget, but it was inserted by the Legislature only to be vetoed by the governor. This year, however, Deukmejian proposed the funds in his budget presented in January.

The other major Valley-area construction project financed will make possible five-story east and west wings for the heavily used Oviatt Library at CSUN.

The budget also provides funds for three Valley recreation projects requested by the City of Los Angeles, according to Norman Boyer, the city’s lobbyist in the capital: $725,000 for a community building in O’Melveny Park in Granada Hills; $1.6 million for the Paxton Recreation Center in Pacoima and $2.75 million for an indoor swimming pool at Cleveland High School in Canoga Park.

Money for Roof, Expansion, Renovation

Among the other Valley area spending proposals in the budget are:

$400,000 to partly cover what is now an outdoor area at the Van Nuys State Office Building. Robbins said that the glass covering there was never completed and that state employees get wet walking to the cafeteria when it rains.

$770,000 for the purchase of land next to the State Office Building for expansion of the structure.

$300,000 to renovate a historic post office on Sylvan Street in Van Nuys so that it can be used as a community theater by the Back Alley Theater.

$250,000 for nonprofit grant programs administered by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.