Hart Backs Homeowners in Fair Dispute

A conflict over a new home for the San Fernando Valley Fair could be looming between two state senators who represent the Valley.

Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) wants the fair to move permanently to Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

But Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara) doesn’t. Pierce College is in his Senate district--and he heads the Senate’s powerful Education Committee, which helps oversee the financing of public schools.

Robbins has urged Los Angeles Community College District officials to allow the fair to permanently move to a 30-acre corner of the Pierce College farm.

In a Jan. 5 letter to college administrators, Robbins suggested that the fair “would complement the fine agricultural program currently offered” at Pierce and could be welcomed without subjecting the campus farmland to other development pressures.

Nearby homeowners who are opposed to the move have vowed to fight such a relocation plan. They contend that the fair will congest their neighborhoods and could add to pressures to develop the 200-acre Pierce farm.

Hart, who met Thursday night with Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization members, said he sides with the homeowners.

“It seems to me preservation of open space at Pierce College is an important environmental goal,” he said.

Hart suggested that any further development of college land should be “consistent with the school’s educational mission.” Accommodating the fair “doesn’t seem to be the best way to proceed,” Hart said.

“With this valuable piece of property, the pressures on the college district are enormous,” he said. “Based on conversations I’ve had with the district, I’d be surprised if the college district goes along with the fair. “

That means that “the fair has a problem, because time is growing short,” Hart said.