Pierce Seeking Bids to Run Driving Range on Campus : Revenue: College officials hope to have golf facility operating by next fall to help bail the school out of financial hard times.

Pierce College officials hope to begin accepting bids soon for a privately operated golf-driving range on the campus to bring revenue to the fiscally strapped school.

The school will send out requests for proposals to anyone who asks, Pierce College President Mary Lee said Monday.

She said she hopes to have the facility--which would be on the north end of the campus between Mason and Winnetka avenues--in operation by next fall.

The operator would be allowed to build and run the facility in exchange for sharing the revenue and funding various improvements to the school, she said. That would include building a jogging course and improving the Victory Avenue entrance to the school.

Another requirement, said Lee, is that the driving range be made available to students who golf as part of a physical education program.

Lee has estimated that the operation could bring in about $300,000 a year to the school over the course of a 10- to 20-year lease.

Since taking over in April, Lee has been under pressure to bring more money into the school. The driving range--which was under consideration before Lee took over as president earlier this year--is one of several revenue enhancement proposals under study.

Lee has suggested introducing various other commercial ventures, including a farm museum, a 300-seat domed theater that would double as a planetarium, a discovery pavilion and a 160- to 260-seat conference center.

She has been meeting with neighborhood groups in an effort to improve relations, which have soured over the years, in part due to various plans to cut back operations of the school’s 240-acre farm.

Margo Murman, who is spearheading an effort to preserve the farm, could not be reached for comment Monday. But she has said in the past that her main concern is to keep the farm as it is.

She is urging Lee to consolidate her tentative proposals into a 160-acre tract near the administration building, instead of encroaching on the farm as Lee has suggested.

Gordon Murley, executive director of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said Monday that he believes school officials may secretly want to get rid of the farm.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they put an 18-hole golf course there,” he said. “It’s a sneaky way to sell off the Pierce College land for a short-term gain. It’s just another way to sell off the land and get commercial in there. . . . If you wanted to keep the farm, why would you be dismantling public areas for private ventures?”