School Drops Plan to Buy Golf Course

Bowing to criticism over a controversial expansion project, Mission College abandoned a proposal to purchase a popular golf course and will instead seek land elsewhere for a satellite campus.

The decision, made by the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees in closed session last week and disclosed Thursday, was based on a consultant’s report that concluded that the obstacles to acquiring El Cariso Golf Course were too great to overcome, said Barbara Perkins, assistant to Mission College President William Norlund.

“In order to meet our short-term needs, we will refocus our energies on acquiring an off-site satellite that meets the requirements of the college and the state,” Perkins said.

In the original proposal, Mission College was to have purchased 30 acres of land occupied by the El Cariso Golf Course to accommodate the 6,500 students enrolled at the 22-acre campus. The plan called for the former golf course land to provide 1,000 additional parking spaces, room for four new classroom buildings and 10 acres of open space.

The buildings would have housed night classes, fine arts programs, and the growing culinary and multimedia departments.

As part of the now-abandoned plan, college officials said they would build a new golf course of equal size on land straddling Pacoima Wash, southeast of the Cariso course.

That plan outraged members of the Senior Men’s Golf Club who use El Cariso. They complained that tees would be farther apart and fees were likely to increase at the new course.

More opposition came from hang gliders, equestrians, ballplayers and community groups who use the wash as a playground. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky criticized the college, saying it had not given the proposal enough thought. Yaroslavsky said the college was panic-stricken and eager to negotiate a deal with the county before a Dec. 15 deadline, when it will lose a state grant if plans are not in place.

But last week a consultant told the board of trustees in a closed session that the college “just couldn’t overcome all the challenges.”

Trustee Georgia Mercer agreed. “With the timing, it wasn’t possible,” she said. “It just wasn’t going to happen.”

Now, with a 15-day extension, the school has until Dec. 30 to use, or lose, the $4.7-million state grant earmarked for the campus expansion.

In a letter to the community announcing the school’s decision, Perkins said the process of identifying another location has already begun with the district’s real estate representatives.

Perkins also wrote, “Recommendations from the community have been reviewed, discussed and implemented where possible. . . . Dr. Norlund has made it very clear to me that the community’s trust is not optional, but vital to the college’s success.”

College administrators plan to hold an open meeting to discuss the expansion next Thursday at 7 p.m.