Plan to Sell Land to Developer Is Setback for Mission College

In a blow to the proposed expansion of Mission College, the owner of a 6.75-acre tract crucial to the college’s plans decided Sunday to sell the land to a housing developer.

Representatives of the Lutheran High School Assn., which owns the Sylmar parcel, voted unanimously to sell it to an unidentified developer. The association purchased the land several years ago as a possible school site.

Dale Wolfgram, principal of Los Angeles Lutheran Junior and Senior High School, said Sunday that the sale was necessary to offset debts incurred when the association bought other property nearby, where the school was built instead.

“We wanted to get on with the business of education,” Wolfgram said. “We’re not in the real estate business.”

Wolfgram said the association couldn’t wait for “the possibilities in the future” that Mission College would be able to come up with the money to buy the land, estimated to be worth $1.8 million.

The tract is the central piece within 17 acres sought by college planners and was their intended site for construction of two instructional buildings, a soccer field and a swimming pool. The college’s present 22-acre campus--where nearly 10,000 students are attending classes this year--is filling quickly, with enrollment projected at 15,000 by the year 2000.

Last week, the college’s expansion effort received a setback when trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District elected not to make an immediate offer for the Lutheran parcel, despite urging by Mission officials. Chancellor Donald Phelps said the district needed to conduct a “more careful study” before coming to a decision.

Mission officials have said failure to obtain the site could force the college to postpone expansion for several years and create a severe space crisis, especially if the northeastern San Fernando Valley communities served by the college--such as Sylmar, Pacoima and Lake View Terrace--continue to grow, as they have over the last decade.

The area’s population rose by 67% between 1980 and 1991, and is expected to increase another 26% by 1995, according to Sherry Borchetta, an assistant to Mission College President Jack Fujimoto.

Proposed for the entire 17-acre parcel are a fine arts center, football stadium and other facilities. College officials are also negotiating with Los Angeles County to build athletic fields, including a golf course and a fitness center, at El Cariso Park, just north of the college.

Mission College set up shop on its present campus only in September, after years of operating out of rented storefronts, churches and high school classrooms. Officials noted that the state ordinarily does not approve college sites of less than 100 acres, but gave the 22-acre campus the go-ahead because Mission had “been looking so long” for land to establish a permanent campus.