Museum Studies Porter Ranch Site : Land use: The creator of the Discovery Pavilion hopes a developer and Pierce College will compete for his science facility for children.

An attorney who has been trying to build a children’s science museum at Pierce College said Wednesday he is also considering a site in the proposed Porter Ranch development on a mountain slope above Chatsworth.

Attorney Nelson Brestoff said he hopes the two sites will compete to offer a home to his $11.1-million Discovery Pavilion, although to date neither location has offered to do so.

Paul Clarke, spokesman for the 1,300-acre Porter Ranch development, said discussions with Brestoff were extremely preliminary, but the idea of locating the Discovery Pavilion at Porter Ranch is interesting.

It is the only current proposal for Porter Ranch land near the Simi Valley Freeway that was designated for cultural uses by a citizens group that helped plan the development, he said. That plan is headed for Los Angeles City Council consideration next month.

“There’s something to be said about being the first one in the door,” Clarke said of Brestoff’s idea.

A longtime science buff, Brestoff took plans for the museum to Pierce College in 1988. Los Angeles Community College District trustees endorsed the concept but delayed further decisions until they could complete a broader study of the future of the 200 acres of farmland at the Woodland Hills campus.

On Wednesday a committee of community college trustees reviewed the proposal but took no action. Later this month, Brestoff is scheduled to meet with faculty, students and staff at the college.

Pierce Vice President William Norlund said construction of the museum on college property “might enhance the college’s reputation.” But he said the college would want something--probably money--in return for giving up the land.

While he waited for Pierce College’s decision, Brestoff watched for other opportunities, he said. With the blessing of Councilman Hal Bernson, he met last week with a Porter Ranch representative.

“It would be a desirable thing for the community, wherever it’s put,” Bernson said Wednesday. “I’m very supportive of what he wants to do.”

Brestoff said he is not committed to either site. “All I care about is which is the most feasible so that this thing can be built. I have a list of pros and cons for each one.”

The Porter Ranch site is more easily seen from the freeway and would be easier to reach than the Pierce College location, Brestoff said. But the Pierce College site probably could accommodate a larger building.

As currently conceived, the museum would include three structures: an entry building with a bookstore and small restaurant, a covered outdoor science park area and an indoor exhibit hall with a 150-seat theater. Plans call for a 64,000-square-foot project in all, about two-thirds the size of the San Francisco-based Exploratoreum, a well-known science museum.

Exhibits will strive to make science and mathematics fun, through use of items such as giant prisms, an echo tube, a laser light beam telephone and robotic dinosaurs.

More than a year before he approached Pierce College, Brestoff had hoped to interest the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation in building the museum at Warner Park. When that did not succeed, he said he would measure public interest in the Pierce College location.

Since then, Brestoff said, he has raised $50,000--partly from San Fernando Valley aerospace firms--and a recent public opinion survey he commissioned found 70% of the nearly 600 people polled approved of the Pierce College site.

The Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, however, has consistently opposed the museum for fear it would bring increased traffic, parking problems and noise to nearby residential neighborhoods.

The next step is a fund-raising study. But there is still one hitch, Brestoff said: “I can’t go out and start raising money to build Discovery Pavilion until I know where it’s going to be.”