Agreement Near on Moving Valley Fair to Pierce College

After more than a year of negotiations, San Fernando Valley Fair organizers and Pierce College officials are close to an agreement that would move the fair to a site at the college.

The board of directors of the 51st Agricultural Assn., the state agency that operates the fair, on Wednesday approved most of a plan agreed upon Tuesday by college officials and the board’s real estate committee. The directors made slight changes and sent the revised plan to the college.

College officials said they will discuss the proposal, work out any differences with fair organizers, and present a final plan to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees in September.

“It’s a major step that occurred today,” said Ted Nauman, fair spokesman.

The annual event has been held on the Devonshire Downs fairgrounds at Cal State Northridge since 1975. But university officials announced last year that fair organizers would have to look elsewhere because the university plans to build a $200-million academic and commercial development on the 30-acre site.

Pierce then offered its campus as a site.

At the Tuesday meeting, college officials and fair organizers tentatively agreed on a one-year lease on the college facilities and unspecified options for future years. On Wednesday, fair directors said they want a 50-year option, to be reviewed every five years.

College officials said they will discuss that proposal in the next few weeks. “My initial response is that 50 years might be longer than we’d like . . . but I don’t see any major problem,” said Bill Norlund, college vice president for administration.

Association board member Sal Buccieri, chairman of the real estate committee, said he is optimistic that the two groups will come to an agreement soon. “I feel confident. We both want this,” he said.

The agreement--a non-binding “memorandum of understanding”--does not specify how the association will pay Pierce for use of the site. Initially, the college had proposed $60,000 for a one-year lease on a 30-acre site. But cash might not be the best option for the college, which is struggling financially, Norlund said.

The two groups will discuss alternatives, such as in-kind trade, services or capital improvements.

“Although cash would be useful, there’s a lot of improvements we could use in the area, such as fencing, roadways, and building refurbishing,” Norlund said.

The agreement between the college and fair organizers states that a fair carnival will be “consistent with traditional family quality recreation” and will give the college some control over its events.

In the past, college officials said they did not want a carnival because of possible noise and congestion. But, Norlund said, “The college will have the input to limit the types of rides, based on the noise and type of audience they might attract . . . We don’t think it’s going to have a major impact on the environment.”

“Large, spectacular, noisy rides will not be a part of it,” Nauman said.

The tentative agreement also states that alcoholic beverages will not be sold during the fair. State law forbids the sale of alcohol on community college campuses.

Woodland Hills Homeowners Assn. members who attended Wednesday’s meeting said they are unhappy that fair organizers are proceeding with the plan despite possible objections from residents. They said they want specific details about how many permanent facilities will be built at the college and what kinds of rides will be provided.

Board members said they have not yet made those decisions.

“Woodland Hills has become a very crowded place,” said Shirley Blessing, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Assn. “They’re contemplating things that are so huge and immense that we should know more.”

Blessing said she is concerned about traffic congestion, noise, pollution, and a “bad element” attending the fair.

“Certain elements of the fair are very compatible with Pierce, such as livestock and horticulture. But we do not want a carnival such as the Devonshire Downs carnival,” she said.

Norlund said the college is considering the community in its negotiations with fair organizers. “A very sizable percentage of our deliberateness in our discussions is for the benefit of the community,” he said.

The annual event was first held in 1946 but was dissolved in 1959 as the Valley urbanized. It has been without a permanent home since its revival in 1975.

The fair would be held on a field south of Victory Boulevard, east of De Soto Avenue and north of a cross-campus road.