Valley Fair May Have a Home : Lake View Terrace: Thursday's opening will be the third at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area. Nearby residents favor permanently locating the annual event there.

By MAYERENE BARKER

July 23, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Community support for the Hansen Dam Recreation Area as a permanent home for the San Fernando Valley Fair is growing as the fair returns this week to the Lake View Terrace site for the third year.

The board of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn. has voted to endorse the proposal, and a recent poll soon to be released by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) shows that the majority of those responding favor Hansen Dam as a home for the fair.

“We really want the fair here,” said Phyllis Hines, land-use chairwoman for the improvement association, a residents organization. “As far as I know, most of the community wants it.”

While endorsing the fair in concept, the community’s other residents group, the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn., wants to see plans for permanent buildings before it takes a position--as does Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represents the area.

“As a concept, we’re more than happy to have them here,” said Lewis Snow, president of the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn.

The 45th San Fernando Valley Fair, sponsored by the 51st District Agricultural Assn., gets under way Thursday and will run through Sunday at the dam’s sports complex and outdoor theater. Billed as a family-oriented event celebrating the Valley’s rural heritage, it will feature 2,000 exhibits, a carnival midway, petting zoo, contests, entertainment, a livestock auction and entertainment for all ages.

“We’re trying to make it more a country fair feeling this year,” said Sal Buccieri, president of the fair’s board of directors for the last three years.

The fair has been without a home since 1988, when it was evicted from its longtime headquarters at Devonshire Downs to make room for a development planned by Cal State Northridge, which owns the property. A plan to hold the then-weeklong fair at Pierce College in Woodland Hills fell through at the eleventh hour in 1989 because of homeowner protests, and a smaller, three-day version was hastily organized at Hansen Dam.

Although skeptical before the event, homeowners in the Hansen Dam area said they had no complaints about the fair, and they allowed organizers to add carnival attractions and a fourth day last year. As a result, fair officials began planning to make the site the event’s permanent home.

“Everyone recognizes that the eastern rim represents the last bastion of rural lifestyle in the Valley,” one fair official said. “The fair fits in there.”

However, a formal proposal to build permanent fair facilities has been put on hold until the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the dam property, approves a long-awaited master plan for the sprawling recreation area.

Fausto Cappobianco, a spokesman for Berman, said the draft master plan is complete and should be available soon. Buccieri said the fair board is finalizing its own plans and has held discussions with the city Recreation and Parks Department, which leases much of the land.

“We don’t have any detailed proposal yet,” he said.

Cappobianco said results of the poll showed that most residents support the fair at Hansen Dam. The poll also examines a number of issues involving Hansen Dam development. Detailed results will be released later this month.

David Mays, Bernardi’s land-use deputy, said the councilman wants to see a plan for permanent structures before he takes a stand on the matter.

Up to now, the fair has been “very compatible with the community,” he said, adding that the scaled-down fair fits in well with the layout of the dam.

Bernardi also wants to get a consensus of support from surrounding communities, including Pacoima, San Fernando, Sylmar and Sunland, as well as Lake View Terrace, because “it’s definitely a regional program.”

As it now stands, Snow said, “we welcome the fair every year. But until we see a proposal, it’s ludicrous to take a position.”

Snow added that residents are concerned that the fair might have to lease out facilities on weekends during the year to help meet its expenses. “I will not have a swap meet here every weekend.”

“We’re enthused about the fair coming to our community,” Hines said, adding that her group was skeptical until the fair proved to be no problem the past two years.

Buccieri said fair officials have attempted to promote more community involvement this year, which he hopes will boost attendance, estimated at 30,000 for the four days last year.

He added that he hopes entertainers such as Dick Van Patten, country-Western singer Dan Seals, the rock group School of Fish and the Harry James Orchestra, a big-band favorite, will attract more visitors. A salute to U. S. troops who participated in the Persian Gulf War is also planned.

Fair hours will be noon to 10:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission will be $5 and $3 for children 14 and younger. Parking will be $1. On Thursday, adults 55 and older will be admitted free until 6 p.m. Children 14 and younger will get free admission Friday until 6 p.m.