Mission College Vows to Continue Plans for Expansion

Mission College officials expressed disappointment Monday over the planned sale to a housing developer of land crucial to their expansion effort, but said they hope to work with the property’s new owners in an effort to enlarge the 22-acre campus.

“I’m sad that the transfer was done, but I hope the new owners of the property consider the long-term development of education in the area as very important,” said Charles Dirks, faculty chairman of Mission College’s campus development committee.

“This is not the best time for construction to begin,” he said. “Maybe they’ll hold off on that and give us a second shot at it.”

On Sunday, representatives of the Lutheran High School Assn. voted unanimously to sell the 6.75-acre parcel in Sylmar to an unidentified developer. The association decided to sell the tract, worth an estimated $1.8 million, to help defray the debts incurred from the purchase of another parcel nearby.

The 6.75 acres, just south of Mission College, is the centerpiece of a larger 17-acre lot where college officials had hoped to construct educational, vocational and athletic facilities, including a football stadium and a fine arts center.

Sunday’s move to sell the parcel came as a setback to Mission College’s plans to expand, but officials said Monday that they would continue the campaign to purchase the rest of the larger tract, parts of which are owned by United Cerebral Palsy and the Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church, according to Shari Borchetta, an assistant to Mission College President Jack Fujimoto.

“We’re landlocked,” she said. “Since it remains the only undeveloped land close by, we’re just going to continue” acquisition efforts.

Borchetta said the college, crowded with 10,000 students since classes began on its permanent campus in September, contacted the owners of all the separate parcels last year, including the Lutheran association.

“But we were basically unable to continue any negotiations unless we had funding,” she said, and state funds for the proposed acquisition did not come through.

Last week, to the chagrin of Mission College officials, trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District also rejected the option of making a bid for the Lutheran parcel in favor of conducting further study of the situation.

After that, there was “no reason” for the Lutheran association not to accept the developer’s bid, Borchetta said. “However, now that people are more aware of our interest than they were before, we can continue to work with our district and the state and with whoever the developer is.”