WOODLAND HILLS : President of Pierce Wants to Keep Farm

Pierce College should preserve every acre of its farmland, but erect buildings and plan commercial projects in other areas of the campus, according to a blueprint for the school being developed by Pierce President Mary Lee.

A rough master plan for the campus will be presented to Los Angeles Community College District trustees Wednesday, Lee said, in an effort to discourage proposals to sell or lease part of the 200 acres of pasture and crop fields to developers.

“Unless we do something constructive with the land, the temptation will be there to sell it,” Lee said Monday, after presenting her ideas to Pierce faculty and staff representatives. “That land has been considered surplus in the past, but as a resource right in the middle of Los Angeles, it is something that must be saved.”

Lee envisions about $85 million in campus improvements, including construction of a golf driving range, natural history museum, futuristic theater in which movies are projected onto a dome, science and agriculture displays and an equestrian center and trail.

No estimates for the potential revenues from such projects have been made.

Buildings for health sciences and student services also are in the works, Lee said. Most new structures would be built in place of seldom-used agriculture buildings, such as the dairy and chicken coop.

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Other priorities include air conditioning for classrooms and resurfacing the main parking lot. Funding for the non-commercial projects, Lee said, would be solicited from corporations and the state government.

Lee, who was appointed president of Pierce in April, told the group it is important to develop a master plan for the school, so fund raising is not done a piece at a time.

The main purpose of creating such a plan--even if it is never finished--is to begin finding ways to increase the popularity and commercial draw of the campus, so that “decisions about how to go commercial are not dictated to us,” Lee said. Developers have floated proposals for turning parts of the farm into a golf course or an office complex, but none has been accepted.

Faced with declining enrollments, state budget cuts and a $2-million deficit, however, Pierce has begun looking for new revenues. Lee already has met informally with Pierce students and government, business and homeowner leaders to discuss her ideas for the campus.

She may have won over local homeowners, who often have been vocal critics of proposals to alter the farmland.

“People want to see open space preserved at Pierce, as an oasis,” said Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization. “Mary Lee seems committed to maintaining and strengthening the need for the farm, and the community will be very pleased to know that.”