Urges Backers to Look Elsewhere for Home : Pierce Might Not Welcome Fair, Chancellor Hints

Officials of the Los Angeles Community College District hinted Thursday night that the homeless San Fernando Valley Fair may not be able to look to Pierce College for anything more than a temporary site.

District Chancellor Donald G. Phelps urged fair organizers to start looking for another site. He said he will decide soon whether to recommend to district trustees that the fair be allowed on campus this summer.

“I don’t think a 4.5-day fair will ruin this community or the college,” Phelps told about 100 people gathered at the Woodland Hills campus to debate the fair’s request to relocate to the college.

But Phelps admitted that he was surprised to learn during the discussion that the fair had no fallback position in case trustees reject the request to use 30 acres of campus pastureland annually for the fair.

Under questioning by Phelps, who was hired to run the college district four months ago, fair director Robert Wilkinson acknowledged that the fair’s sponsor, the 51st District Agriculture Assn., has put all of its eggs in Pierce’s basket--both for this year and in the future.

Wilkinson, of Northridge, said fair officials would view this year’s proposed July 12-16 fair at Pierce as a trial run. If it is a success, they hope to negotiate to permanently move the event to the Woodland Hills campus.

That stance was vigorously opposed Thursday night by Woodland Hills residents.

Homeowner Sam Roth suggested that the fair would eventually evolve into a 180-day-a-year operation using 90 acres of Pierce farmland and operating a “multimillion-dollar exhibit hall” for trade shows. Roth termed the trial run “a Trojan horse.”

Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, asked that the fair be kept off Pierce land until a permanent master plan for the 400-acre campus is drawn up. Gross said alternative sites are available for this year’s fair if Wilkinson’s group looks for them.

But others--including 4-H Club members and Pamela Donahue, president of the Pierce student body--supported the fair’s request to rent campus land this year.

Sponsors of the fair have repeatedly sought to assure homeowners and college officials that this year’s event will be well-managed and kept low-key if it is allowed on the Victory Boulevard campus.

Pay for Cleanup

The sponsors have pledged to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages to fair-goers and to select carnival rides that would not be noisy or obtrusive. They would bar concert-type entertainment and aim all fairground loudspeakers away from adjacent neighborhoods, fair officials have promised.

The fair would pay for minor repairs and for a cleanup of areas to be used this summer, the sponsors said. They said Pierce College would control the design of any permanent structures.

Phelps said last month that college trustees may require a permanent master plan for the college before they consider inviting the fair in.

According to Pierce officials, the earliest a master plan can be finished is next summer. When fair officials pointed out that they need a firm commitment on the college site by next month, Phelps organized Thursday night’s showdown meeting.

Fair manager Mel Simas has said the fair is being forced to vacate its former home at Devonshire Downs because of a pending development at Cal State Northridge.

After Thursday’s session, fair board president Sal Buccieri of Sepulveda said he is still optimistic that this year’s fair will be held at Pierce--and so will subsequent events.

“I feel the study they will do after our first fair will show that we are beneficial to the school,” he said.