Pierce’s Classroom in the Fields : President Asks Trustees to Declare Campus an Agricultural Preserve

In a move that could help defuse a Woodland Hills development dispute, the president of Pierce College has asked Los Angeles Community College District trustees to declare his campus a permanent agricultural preserve.

Such a designation would protect the school’s 200-acre farm from encroaching development at next-door Warner Center and could help revive Pierce’s struggling agricultural curriculum, said college President David Wolf.

“It would maintain open space for the community and maintain the ability of the district in the future to use this land for educational purposes that emerge in the future,” Wolf said Wednesday.

Planning for Future

“It should be preserved now so a decision can be made 20, 30, 40 years from now.”

Wolf said college officials have been flooded with development proposals for the farmland from outsiders. Construction ideas have ranged from retail stores to high-density housing and underground parking for adjacent Warner Center, he said.

Wolf said he is seeking agricultural preserve status for the farm to signal to both the campus and the community that the land is not for sale.

“It is abundantly clear to me that a thriving agricultural program has been part of the heritage of this college and can, once again, be one of its unique and popular aspects,” Wolf said.

Trustees are expected to consider Wolf’s proposal early next year, according to college district officials.

The sprawling college farmland at the southeast corner of Victory Boulevard and DeSoto Avenue has been the school’s centerpiece since its founding in 1947. Over the years, the land has supported sheep, cattle and crops such as alfalfa and corn that are raised as class projects by agriculture students.

But enrollment in agricultural courses has declined as Los Angeles County has become more urbanized. Burgeoning construction in the Warner Center industrial area, meantime, has caused developers to gaze with envy at the open farmland.

Pierce College students and teachers reacted to development pressure in the late 1970s by joining Woodland Hills homeowners to fight a proposed condominium development project on a 22-acre parcel at the southwestern edge of the farm.

A hastily formed “Friends of the Pierce College Farm” group successfully argued that the future of the farm would be threatened if residents moved in and became irritated by flies and odors from livestock grazing outside their windows.

A new outcry came last year when plans were unveiled for a nine-building high-rise office complex on the parcel, called Warner Ridge.

Homeowners living south of the farm complained that the offices would cause traffic congestion in their neighborhood and spark the future development of the college farmland.

Homeowners were further angered when Pierce College officials announced their support of the $150-million office project. Residents charged the developers had offered up to $300,000 to the college in exchange for use of a sliver of farmland next to DeSoto Avenue.

Officials Deny a Deal

College officials have denied that any deal has been struck between them and the developers, a partnership of the Spound Co. and Johnson Wax Development Corp.

But the college’s support of the project has divided the 11-member agriculture department faculty.

Department administrators said last month there have been scuffles at faculty meetings and threats of lawsuits between faculty members who are divided over the impact they feel the high-rise project would have on farm operations.

The dispute spread from the faculty lounge to the neighborhood two months ago when eight agriculture teachers endorsed the high-rise plan in a signed letter on Pierce College stationery that was distributed to nearby homeowners.

Agriculture teachers opposed to the project countered with an unsigned letter of their own on the college’s letterhead.

Wolf said Wednesday that seeking the agricultural preserve designation is tied to a revamping of the school’s agriculture curriculum that is already under way.

He said expanded equestrian, horticulture and veterinary science courses are being put into place in hopes of increasing agriculture department enrollment in the 1990s.

Although the agriculture department has claimed a current enrollment of about 700 students, Wolf estimated Wednesday that the figure is probably closer to 300. About 20,000 students attend Pierce College.

Wolf said the farm preserve designation will show the agriculture faculty “that the Board of Trustees is with them” in beefing up the program. Pierce College is the only campus within the nine-school district with an agriculture curriculum.

District officials said Wednesday that Wolf’s request has been delayed by the resignation two months ago of Chancellor Leslie Koltai, who headed the nation’s largest community college system for 15 years.

Acting Chancellor Tom Fallo, who has discussed the farm preserve concept with Wolf, was unavailable for comment.

District spokesman Norm Schneider said officials have no plans at present to sell the farm or develop it--even though one estimate has pegged the land’s value at $200 million.

“Right now, the district is in fairly stable condition,” Schneider said. “I don’t think the district is about to put something on the auction block to raise cash.”