Pierce College Agrees to Provide Fair Site After Carnival Is Scaled Down

A tentative agreement has been reached for a scaled-down San Fernando Valley Fair at Pierce College this summer, school officials and fair organizers said Wednesday.

As part of a compromise, the Woodland Hills college will allow the fair to set up a family-oriented carnival for its five-day run.

Operation of a traditional carnival midway had been a sticking point in negotiations for the fair, which has been forced to move from its previous home at Devonshire Downs in Northridge because of a development there.

Fair operators have acknowledged that last year’s carnival midway helped lure a record-setting crowd of about 80,000 to the agricultural-themed exhibition.

But college officials balked at having a honky-tonk type of midway at Pierce. They said noisy rides and games of chance could draw rowdy crowds and disrupt two nearby neighborhoods.

Family-oriented attractions now proposed by fair operators will minimize that threat, said David Wolf, Pierce College president.

The fair would take place on a 30-acre cornfield near Victory Boulevard and De Soto Avenue, officials said. “I think both sides think it will work,” Wolf said of the scaled-down carnival plan.

The tentative agreement was reached late Tuesday during talks between college administrators and fair officials.

“We left there very happy with them,” said Dallas Boardman, president of the board of directors of the 51st District Agricultural Assn., which runs the fair. “We’re going to work on the agreement on Friday. We don’t want to waste any more time.”

Boardman said the compromise will allow some rides to be set up. “There will be some kind of amusement center or something of that type for the families,” he said.

“There will be no big, noisy midway.”

Wolf said “the basic outline is there” for an agreement on such things as rent, security and the layout of the fair.

According to Wolf, the college is proposing that a formula be used to determine rent for the exhibition site and use of parking lots.

Under the plan, rent would be 1% of the value of the cornfield--estimated to be worth a minimum of $200,000 an acre--or $60,000.

The fair would be held July 13-17, although fair operators would be given another 2 1/2 weeks to set up and a week to tear down tents and booths.

Wolf said the college will allow equestrian units to participate, something that he said was prohibited in the past at Devonshire Downs, part of the California State University, Northridge campus.

If this year’s event is a success, he said, the college may be willing to invite the fair to stay permanently at the 400-acre campus.