Students, Faculty Urge Pierce College to Keep Open Space

Pierce College faculty members and students pleaded with college administrators Wednesday not to develop open space and farmland on the 420-acre campus.

The comments came during a hearing headed by Pierce President Daniel Means and other officials gathering information for a planned land-use study of the school ordered by the Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees.

The study, which will not be started until next year, will help determine the future of the 41-year-old college. Testimony from the hearing Wednesday and one scheduled for next month will help identify the alternative land uses to be considered in the study.

Most of the 50 people who attended the meeting at the school’s Campus Center said the open space, including 200 acres of farmland and all other open areas on campus, should be preserved and not sold to developers. The sentiments echoed the longstanding fears of San Fernando Valley residents, who fear that a golf course, apartments or an equestrian center will be put on the farmland.

“Just looking at the open space is a comfort to all of us,” said Louise Bianco, who works in the enrollment office. “We’re pleading with you--don’t build on it, don’t pave it over. There’s so little greenbelt around here.”

Kathleen Rodgers, 25, a history student at the college, said the vacant land “is the last open space in the West Valley. That’s something you can’t put a value on, even at $1 million an acre. We don’t need a golf course or another shopping mall. Profit should not be the bottom line here.”

Many speakers recommended that the school’s struggling agricultural program and farmland be preserved. Means had said last month that the program could be shut down in the spring of 1992 if enrollment does not improve. Enrollment fell this year by 200, to 1,300, continuing a long-term decline.

“This school was originally set up as an agricultural school,” said Michelle Bincus, 23, a computer science student. “It would be destroying the heritage of the school if you take that away.”

However, a few speakers told officials the open space was not needed.

“It’s not the primary goal of this school to be a pretty place,” said Michael Ferry, 21, an anthropology student. “Our goal is to provide education--not to be a pretty back-yard scene for Woodland Hills residents.”

Ron Baerwitz, a faculty member who helps recruit high school students, said selling some of the school’s acreage would enable the college to finance “a much needed face lift. We have to have a place where students will want to go.”

The comments will be incorporated into a report by the school’s planning advisory committee, which will advertise at the end of the year for a firm to conduct the land-use study.

Members of the public were not allowed to speak at the meeting, but Means said they will have an opportunity to comment during a Nov. 17 hearing at the school.