Mission College May Lose Expansion Site to Developer : Education: The overcrowded Sylmar school seeks land owned by a Lutheran organization. The church group, however, could decide today to sell the parcel to a builder.

Mission College, already overcrowded on a campus that has been open less than a year, is in danger of losing to a housing developer a key piece of property the college seeks for expansion.

The Lutheran High School Assn., which owns the 6.75-acre parcel in Sylmar, will decide today whether to accept a developer’s offer for the land. The property is part of a 17-acre parcel that college planners want to acquire for construction of instructional buildings, athletic fields and other facilities.

Mission College President Jack Fujimoto said if the college is not successful in obtaining the $1.8-million Lutheran site, expansion could be delayed for several years while officials search for alternatives.

Mission College officials failed in a last-ditch effort last week to persuade Los Angeles Community College District trustees to make an immediate offer for the land. Chancellor Donald Phelps said that while the district supports the college’s efforts to expand, an “issue of this magnitude really needs more careful study.”

Dale Wolfgram, principal of Los Angeles Lutheran Junior and Senior High School in Sylmar, said he doesn’t know if the developer’s bid will be accepted by the association, a coalition of 11 Lutheran churches that operates the school.

The crisis over land to expand the 22-acre campus is the latest incident capping years of frustrating setbacks and delays for the college.

State and local officials have consistently underestimated Mission’s potential, college officials said. In 1975, when Mission College was established, state officials predicted that a college in the northeastern San Fernando Valley would never attract more than 5,000 students.

In 1986, then-Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed $8.7 million included in the state budget to build the campus, saying it wasn’t needed. Northeastern Valley residents could attend Pierce or Valley colleges, he said. At that time, Mission College, operating out of rented storefronts, churches and high school classrooms, had about 4,800 students.

But last year, Mission College’s enrollment was 7,000. Since the permanent campus opened in September, enrollment is nearing 10,000 and expected to grow to at least 15,000 by the year 2000.

Sherry Borchetta, Fujimoto’s assistant, told trustees last week that enrollment will continue to grow because the communities it serves, such as Sylmar, Pacoima and Lake View Terrace, are among the fastest-growing in the city of Los Angeles. Between 1980 and 1991, the area’s population grew 67%, she said, and is expected to increase by another 26% by 1995.

“The population growth spurs us on,” Borchetta said.

Fujimoto added that about 55% of the population the college serves is Latino. “Our goal is to get more underrepresented students in the four-year system,” he said.

Fujimoto said the property owned by the Lutheran High School Assn. is the bridge between two other parcels totaling 17 acres that are crucial to the completion of the Mission College campus.

If houses are built on the 6.75 acres, he said, the 17 acres will be too fragmented and will not be contiguous to the present campus.

A recently completed master plan for development of the college proposes two instructional buildings, a soccer field and a swimming pool on the current Lutheran property.

Fujimoto said college officials also are negotiating with Los Angeles County to build facilities such as a baseball field, golf course and physical fitness center at El Cariso Park, just north of the college. These could be operated jointly by the county and the college, he said. “We’re looking toward sort of an educational park.”

Borchetta said other plans call for the college to build a fine arts center, football stadium and other vocational and educational facilities on the 17-acre parcel. “We have facilities planned, but no property,” she said.

Charles Dirks, faculty chairman of Mission’s campus development committee, said normally the state doesn’t approve creation of a college until it has acquired at least 100 acres. Mission College was approved with only 22 acres, he said, because “we’d been looking so long” for land on which to establish a college.

Dirks said he had hoped that trustees would offer to lease the Lutheran association property until the district could come up with a sizable down payment to buy the land. “We’re getting higher on the state priority list” for funding, he said.

Mission is hemmed in on two sides by houses, Dirks said. “To cripple us and leave it landlocked is a serious injustice.”

But Phelps said trustees want college officials to explore other alternatives before the district locks itself into an agreement to buy any land.

“I think it behooves us not to just go out and pursue more land without exploring other possibilities,” said Phelps, who suggested that other colleges with less than 100 acres have built “up instead of out.”

Fujimoto said he is not discouraged by the trustees’ failure to act. “It’s given me more of a challenge to go out and look at creative alternatives. This is just another hurdle.”

He added that Mission College officials will continue to try to acquire the Lutheran association property.

“I haven’t given up hope,” he said. “All kinds of things can happen. Sales fall through.”

Wolfgram, the school principal, said that college officials immediately began calling the Lutheran association when the property was listed for sale last year. “But they didn’t have any funds,” he said.

The association bought the property as the site for its school. But because of opposition from neighbors, the school was built on four acres nearby and opened in September, Wolfgram said.

Wolfgram said that with the opening of the new school, funds are needed to offset debts.

“But we do want to do what’s right,” he said.