Council Approves College Building Plan

A controversial plan by Pomona College to put an academic building in an undeveloped part of campus was given final approval Tuesday.

The City Council unanimously denied an appeal by four residents challenging the Architectural Commission’s approval in January of the 22,000-square-foot Hahn Academic Building.

Some residents, organized as Citizens to Save Our Park, have opposed the college’s building plans for the area called the Woods, saying that the vacant, tree-filled lot on Harvard Avenue in the Village was meant to remain open space.

But City Atty. Wynne S. Furth said she found no evidence of any restrictions in the land documents for the land the college is trying to develop.

“It is very clear that there is no park on that site,” Mayor Nicholas L. Presecan said.

The ownership of the vacant land, which adjoins the college’s historic Carnegie Building, came into question when residents told the council that the land had been given to the college in trust in 1883 for the city to build a park.

Residents argued that since the college has already built on the eastern half, it should hand over the Woods to the city instead. Lawyers for Pomona College said the 1893 deed never actually created a trust.

But Furth told the council Tuesday that she thought the portion of the land on which the Carnegie Building stands had a deed restriction and that the college, as trustee, had violated its responsibility to the city by not handing over the land.

Furth advised the council that the city could seek return of the land in court. The council asked for a review of the ownership issue before deciding.