Pierce Reclaims Land, Closes Stand : Agriculture: College stops leasing acreage to farmer. It plans to expand student programs and open a farmers’ market.

Pierce College’s farm stand, which has become an institution in the San Fernando Valley over the past decade, will be eliminated and the surrounding farmland will be incorporated into the school’s agricultural program, school officials said Tuesday.

In a surprise announcement, Pierce officials said the school has eliminated a long-standing arrangement under which a private farmer leased the stand and 25 acres of land. The land will now be farmed by students, officials said, and the farm stand will be converted into a farmers’ market.

The college has rejected bids from two farmers who were competing to obtain a three-year lease, officials said. One, Joe Cicero, had held the lease for the past 10 years.

The goal is to incorporate the 25 acres into the college’s agricultural program, which occupies 240 acres on the school’s campus, said interim Pierce President Mary Lee. It would allow the school to expand its animal husbandry, livestock and orchard programs to include row crops.

“It’s a window of opportunity for the college,” Lee said.

Tuesday’s announcement angered some community leaders, who say they fear the school has a secret plan to sell off all the school’s farmland for a profit. Robert Gross, executive vice president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said he wonders why the school put the operation out to bid, then rejected both bids it received.

“They went out to bid on a new lease and they justified that to the Board of Trustees,” he said. “Now, they say that justification doesn’t hold anymore. . . . What’s changed?”

The current plan, Lee said, “just kind of evolved.”

“The more I thought about it, I thought it may be an opportunity to make the farm part of the agricultural program,” said Lee. She said the school has no plans to sell off farmland.

Cicero, who had a stormy relationship with the Los Angeles Community College District during his tenure at the farm stand, questioned whether the fiscally strapped school can make up for the money it would have brought in by leasing the property.

Cicero, who bid $25,000 a year for the three-year lease, was outbid by John T. Dullam, an Oxnard strawberry grower who bid $30,000 for the first year of the contract, $35,000 for the second and $40,000 for the third.

The farm stand has been closed since last December. Cicero moved out last month.

Lee said she believes the school will be able to make up for any money that would have been brought in by the leases.

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The farmers’ market would be open up to three days a week, Lee said. It would operate as a traditional farmers’ market does, selling produce brought in by outside farmers, as well as crops grown on the farm.

The plan includes selling Christmas trees and keeping the farmers’ market open for extended periods during the holidays.

The college, she said, plans to plant corn and pumpkins until it can obtain the machinery needed to plant row crops.