Valley Fair Board Focuses on Temporary Site for ’88

San Fernando Valley Fair organizers, facing continued opposition from federal lawmakers and the Army Corps of Engineers to their proposal to locate the fair permanently in the Sepulveda Basin, have shifted their efforts to finding a temporary site.

“The primary need of the fair is to get a temporary site for 1988,” said state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), the fair’s leading proponent. “Once we work that out, then we’ll worry about a permanent site.”

The fair will have to relocate after this summer from a 51-acre site at the North Campus of California State University, Northridge, which the university plans to develop. The Valley Fair Board voted in December to seek a permanent home in the Sepulveda Basin, which would require moving the Air National Guard’s 261st Combat Communications Squadron from its 25.7-acre site on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys to Hansen Dam.

However, the proposal has no chance of approval, according to a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the basin and Hansen Dam.

‘Question Put to Bed’

“As far as we’re concerned, the Sepulveda question has been put to bed,” said Lewis Crout, a realty specialist with the corps’ Los Angeles office. “It’s not a site for a permanent facility.”

Crout said that, even if other obstacles were overcome, federal law prohibits the corps from allowing construction of “significant” buildings in an area subject to flooding, such as the basin. The fair would apparently require such construction.

The fair board’s consultant, Norman J. Landerman, said in a November report that the fair needs at least 60 acres for “a complement of permanent and temporary facilities, including administration and exhibit buildings, livestock facilities, special events area, parking and other ancillary support facilities.”

Robbins has also inserted $1.95 million in the proposed state budget to construct a fair exhibit building when a permanent site is acquired.

Complicated Process

Crout said ousting the Air Guard unit and replacing it with the fair would be extremely complicated. He said it would require four separate approvals by the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services committees, among other things, and would take several years. The fair board has not begun this process, Crout said.

Finally, even if the Air Guard site became available, Crout said, first the Air Force and then the City of Los Angeles, which is leasing much of the basin for recreation, would have priority under federal law to use the land.

The need for federal approvals, meanwhile, makes the opposition of Reps. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Tarzana) and Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) to the fair board’s plan particularly significant, Crout said. Beilenson, whose district includes the basin, said he is opposed because he wants to keep the last large open area of the Valley as green as possible.

Community Groups Concerned

Berman, whose district includes Hansen Dam, said he opposes relocating the Air Guard unit there because he wants to develop the dam as a recreational facility. In addition, the engineer corps has told Robbins that there is no land safe from flooding in Hansen Dam.

Meanwhile, two more community groups have expressed reservations about creating a fair headquarters in the basin.

“We’re very concerned, and it seems to be a step in the wrong direction,” said Richard Close, president of Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., which represents 875 families.

The association hasn’t taken a position on the plan, but Close said its members have expressed concern about fair-generated traffic, loss of recreational space and the prospect of year-round events at a permanent site.

The executive board of Homeowners of Encino unanimously agreed Wednesday to oppose a permanent fair site in the basin unless nine specific conditions are met, said Gerald A. Silver, president of the 1,000-member group. These include limiting the fair to six days a year, adding no parking or buildings, prohibiting amplified sound and carnival rides, and refusing to rent the site to other groups.

Keeping Open Space

Previously, Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., which represents 500 households, had opposed the basin as a permanent fair site to prevent the loss of open space.

Robbins reiterated this week that he will not proceed with the proposal if there is community opposition. He said he would put the plan to a vote through a newsletter or ballot measure “if there is any question as to whether there is community support for the site.”

Earlier this month, Robbins had sent Beilenson a strongly worded letter stating that the lawmaker’s opposition to the fair proposal “goes contrary to the strong community interest of many Valley residents” and characterizing Beilenson’s objections as “pure horse manure.”

However, Robbins met with Beilenson and representatives of the Air Guard and Army corps June 19 for 90 minutes in a session described by participants as cordial. All parties reportedly agreed to seek a temporary 1988 site for the five-day fair.

Crout said this might include two 10-acre sites in the northern basin and Hansen Dam but not the Air Guard location. The success of the Country Scene music festival, which drew 125,000 people to Hansen Dam in April, reflected the suitability of the area as a permanent site, he added.

Too Remote

Fair consultant Landerman considered a Hansen Dam site for his report last fall but concluded that it was too far from population centers, was relatively inaccessible and posed environmental problems. The other location considered by the fair board’s consultant was Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

“Pierce does have the support facilities,” said Beilenson, who favors that site. “It’s got the parking; it’s an agricultural college.”

Robbins said he would not rule out any possible location.

Robbins has included language in the proposed $41.1-billion state budget that would require plans to be drawn up to move the Air Guard squadron from the basin to Hansen Dam before any money can be spent from a $110,000 state National Guard construction account. Much of the money is earmarked for an armory the guard wants to build in Ukiah.