WOODLAND HILLS : Redesign of College Farm Plan Is Urged

A community activist working to preserve Pierce College’s farm is urging school President Mary Lee to redesign her tentative plans to introduce various commercial ventures to the campus.

Margo Murman, president of the Coalition to Save the Farm, said she generally supports Lee’s plans, intended to bring in more revenue. But Murman said she has urged Lee to redesign the plan in a way that would leave the farm intact.

Lee insisted Wednesday that her proposal is just that, a proposal. She has no set ideas at this point, she said.

“There are no ‘counter-proposals,’ ” she said. “It’s not a question of Margo’s plan, or anyone else’s plan. People are giving their input about things they would like to see happen.”

Lee said the school has formed a community advisory committee to gather public responses on issues such as land use. The group will have its first meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 22 at the college. The public has been invited.

Lee, who took over as president in April, has been under pressure to preserve the farm while at the same time solving the school’s serious fiscal woes.

Some say the farm is a waste of money because of low enrollment in the school’s agricultural programs. Those critics say that money would be better used for basic academic programs.

Lee’s proposed commercial ventures include a golf-driving range, a farm museum, a 300-seat domed theater that would also serve as a planetarium, a discovery pavilion to give children and adults hands-on experience in science, and a 160- to 260-seat conference center.

The farm would remain in operation and a 15-acre wildlife preserve, Canyon de Lana, would not be altered.

Under the plan--at this point merely a hand-drawn map--the pavilion, domed theater and planetarium, farm museum and conference center would be built in an area now used for agriculture. A parking lot for a revamped football stadium would also encroach on the farm.

Murman, who has the support of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, called for consolidating all these facilities into a 160-acre tract on the main campus near the administration building, leaving the farm’s 240 acres intact.

“The farmland is absolutely one of the most significant resources in Los Angeles County that we have for teaching,” Murman said. “Once you start chipping away at the land base, you’re going to lose the flexibility that you have for programs.”

“I’m not going to get pinned down on any particular point” now, Lee said. “We are still receiving input.”

Murman and the homeowners organization have been at odds with previous school officials, including Dan Means, who retired as president in June, 1991. Means angered Murman and others after he closed the school’s dairy and farm store to save money.

Murman and others say that Lee, since taking over, has made significant gains in improving relations with various community groups.

Murman said she has other ideas to improve the farm and make it self-sufficient, including setting up an endowment fund for the farm and urging school officials to apply for more grants.