College to Proceed With $9-Million Arts Center : Moorpark: The state provided $7.5 million for a campus theater. Simi Valley redevelopment money is sought.

Moorpark College officials say they plan to break ground on a $9-million performing arts center later this year, regardless whether the college receives all the money it has requested from the city of Simi Valley.

The college has already received $7.5 million from the state to build a 400-seat, multiuse theater on its campus, officials said.

The Ventura County Community College District is now asking Simi Valley to release $257,000 in redevelopment money, earmarked for improvement projects at Moorpark College, to help pay for the arts center. The City Council will consider the request at its meeting tonight.

The district also wants the City Council to guarantee that a certain percentage of redevelopment funds will be allocated each year to help pay back the $1.2 million that would have to be borrowed to complete the center. The district wants to issue bonds to cover the debt and to pay for other campus improvements.

The council postponed a decision on the district’s request in September, saying it wanted more information about the participation of other communities in financing the arts center. Thousand Oaks is contributing $65,000 in redevelopment funds and Moorpark is chipping in $5,000.

Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis said he is concerned that his city would be paying a disproportionate share. While the city may be obligated to allocate redevelopment money to the college, he said, he does not necessarily agree that the money should be disbursed all at once. The college fund account now holds $258,000.

Davis said he would prefer to follow the city staff’s recommendation that the city release a smaller amount to the college annually, perhaps equal to Thousand Oaks’ $65,000 contribution.

Other officials question whether a two-year college with 12,000 students needs a $9-million performing arts center.

“There are performing arts centers and there are performing arts centers,” Councilwoman Judy Mikels said. “Certainly a state-of-the-art center would be wonderful, but for a college that size is it necessary when there are other needs for the students?”

Mikels said she is concerned about whether the center will actually benefit Simi Valley residents and theater groups, such as the Santa Susana Repertory Co. She said she expects the facility to be so heavily used by the college that it will not be available to community groups.

Lawrence Lloyd, the college’s vice president of administrative services, said the college desperately needs the facility. He said it would be used for drama, dance and music productions, which are now held either outdoors or in cramped classrooms.

He said the city and the college district entered into an agreement in 1985, setting aside a portion of the city’s redevelopment funds for improvements at Moorpark College. The only major proviso was that the improvements also benefit the neighboring community.

Lloyd said Simi Valley may have to shoulder a higher proportion of the art center’s funding than other jurisdictions, but he noted that the city helped negotiate the redevelopment agreement.

Whether the council decides to release all or some of the redevelopment funds, Lloyd said the college plans to move ahead with construction of the 25,841-square-foot building. He said groundbreaking could occur as early as August, with the center opening in mid-1994.

While the performing arts center would primarily be used as a teaching facility, Lloyd said, it will also serve the entire east county, which he said needs a theater as badly as the college.

“When we don’t have anything at all in an area serving 300,000, that seems a little ludicrous to me,” he said.

Despite plans by Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks to develop their own multimillion-dollar performing arts centers, officials from the two cities and the college agree that their facilities will not conflict with one another.

“I can’t imagine why they would in an area with so many people,” Lloyd said. “Three theaters may not necessarily meet all the needs” of the east county.

The city of Thousand Oaks is in the process of building a $63.8-million civic center and arts complex.

Last year, Simi Valley spent $820,000 to acquire a historic church on Los Angeles Avenue that the city plans to convert into a performing arts center. Officials said it will take two to three years and cost more than $2 million to convert the building.

The city also has long-term plans to build a larger performing arts center next to City Hall. That project is about 10 years off and is expected to cost more than $15 million, officials said.

In response to Mikels’ concerns, Lloyd said he does not think that the $9-million cost of the college facility is excessive.

“It’s not a luxurious facility, but it is a commodious facility,” he said. “There is a difference.”

Lloyd said the center will be made available to outside theatre groups. The fact that nearly half of the students at the college are from Simi Valley is another example of how the city will benefit from the project, he said.

Sidney Adler, director of the humanities department, said teachers and students have been waiting since the college opened in 1967 to have their own theater.

“I can tell you we’ve been suffering for 24 years with our production needs,” he said. “It’s about time we professionalized our programs.”

Adler agreed with Lloyd that the theater project is not out of line for a small college.

“I don’t think it’s overly ambitious,” he said. “It meets the needs of our educational programs.”