Pierce College Plan Is Revised to Spare the Farm

Pierce College President Mary Lee, at the behest of a community group working to preserve the school’s farm, has revised a tentative master plan for the school that would have encroached on the farm.

The plan, designed in part to bring in revenue to the financially strapped school, includes such commercial ventures as a golf range, farm museum and 300-seat domed theater that would also serve as a planetarium.

It also includes a discovery pavilion, where children and adults can get hands-on experience in science, and a 160- to 260-seat conference center.

When the original version of the plan was introduced, Margo Murman, president of the Coalition to Save the Farm, praised Lee’s efforts to bring in more revenue.

But she also urged Lee to consolidate the plans onto a 160-acre tract on the main campus near the administration building, leaving the farm’s 240 acres intact.

In the original version of the plan, the discovery pavilion, farm museum and planetarium would have been situated on farmland. Under the revised plan, they have been moved to a part of the campus away from the farm.

“We have made some changes based on input,” said Lee, who has been meeting with community and school groups throughout the process.

Meanwhile, Murman has been named chairwoman of a newly created community advisory committee, formed to offer advice to the school on the master plan and other issues. The group has 18 members, including Shirley Blessing, a member of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, and Evie Phillips of the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce.

The committee, which next meets Jan. 3, will review an updated version of the plan presented by Lee, said Murman.

The committee has asked Lee to provide more details in her plan, Murman said.

“It’s very unclear as to how much space these buildings are going to take up and where the parking is going to be,” Murman said. “All the buildings and things should be drawn to scale, and they are not.”

Lee, who took over as president in April, has been under pressure to preserve the farm but also to alleviate the school’s fiscal woes. Some say the farm is a waste of money because of low enrollment in the school’s agricultural programs. That money would be better used for the school’s basic academic programs, those critics say.

Blessing, whose organization has clashed in the past with school officials over land-use issues, said any plan should focus on improving education.

“We have to think about where we will be 25 years from now,” she said. “You can’t just think about the straits the college may be in financially today.”