High-Rise Draws Lawsuits, Charges of Low Blows at Pierce College

A dispute over a proposed high-rise project next to Pierce College has led to scuffles at faculty meetings, threats of lawsuits between teachers and a police investigation into a mystery letter sent from the campus to Woodland Hills residents.

At the center of the controversy is the school’s agriculture department, which operates a 30-year-old student farm next to the proposed $150-million Warner Ridge development site.

“It’s getting real nasty around here,” said Ed Boggess, a professor of agriculture who opposes the high-rise on grounds that it could eventually lead to urbanization of the college’s farmland.

“There’s been pushing and shoving at our meetings. It’s not a happy home,” said agriculture department Chairman Mick Sears, who supports the high-rises because he feels they will protect the farm from encroachment by developers.

Although homeowners living near the college have argued that homes--not office buildings up to seven stories high--should be built on the 22-acre site, college officials disagree. They feel that fewer complaints about farm noise, flies and odors will come from offices than from houses.

The controversy spilled into the open last month when Sears and seven other agriculture teachers endorsed the high-rise plan in a signed letter on college stationery distributed to nearby homeowners.

College Letterhead

Foes of the project countered with an unsigned letter under the college’s letterhead. They contended that college backers would “receive $300,000 as compensation” from developers for supporting the high-rises.

Sears responded with another letter that blasted the opponents’ letter as misleading and improper. Opponents fought back by issuing a signed letter that amplified charges contained in the unsigned one.

Pierce College President David Wolf said Tuesday that he has asked Los Angeles police to investigate the opponents’ first letter. He said he wants to find out who wrote it, whether forgery laws were broken and whether school officials were libeled.

“I’ll do everything in my power to see that those responsible are punished,” Wolf said. “It was an embarrassment.”

Wolf denied that the college has entered into any agreement with the high-rise developers.

“There’s been no deal . . . ,” he said. “I will make libel information available to the staff.”

But Warner Ridge project opponents were standing by their accusations Tuesday.

Leland Shapiro, another agriculture professor, said he was at two meetings chaired by Wolf 16 months ago in which “$250,000 to $300,000 worth of donations” by the developers was discussed.

“For him to say nothing was promised is a lie,” maintained Shapiro, who said he is preparing a lawsuit of his own. “We have documentation for everything we’ve said.”

Boggess disclaimed responsibility for the mystery letter but said he and other high-rise opponents stand behind the accusations made in it.

Charges Continue to Fly

“Why should they as a school institution endorse this controversial project?” Boggess said. “It looks to me like they were bought off.”

Sears said he was offended by the opponents’ unsigned letter because the initials “MS” were typed on it, leading some to think the letter came from him.

Sears charged Tuesday that some agriculture teachers are using the high-rise issue to get back at the college for wide-ranging changes this year to the agriculture curriculum. They include a phase-out of classes in pig, dairy, chicken and sheep production.

He said the college was forced to modernize the curriculum because of declining enrollments in the agriculture department and because of the reduction of commercial livestock operations in Los Angeles County.

The high-rise dispute, meanwhile, had spread Tuesday to a community support group called Friends of the Pierce College Farm. That group has joined the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization in opposing the Warner Ridge project.

Sears has written a letter to the support group demanding it change its name. But the group won’t do that, its vice president said Tuesday.

“We are not friends of the agriculture department,” Jayne Hazard said. “There’s an awful lot of politics going on there.”