COLLEGE SET TO LEASE ITS CORNER LOT; PLAN TO GENERATE FUNDS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Up to 15 acres at the northeast corner of College of the Canyons, currently a campus parking lot, will be made available for lease under a resolution recently approved by the board of trustees.

The land at Valencia Boulevard and Rockwell Canyon Road could be developed for certain types of business, office or light industrial use under current city zoning for the property, said Nicolas Ferguson, the college's vice president of administrative services.

The proposal to lease the land, approved by the five-member board Oct. 14, is intended as a money-making plan. The college could collect $250,000 to $750,000 in lease payments annually for what Ferguson described as a ``little-used parking lot.'' For the 1998-99 fiscal year, College of the Canyons is operating on a $38 million budget, he said.

Students' parking fees don't generate enough revenue to cover the lots' costs,Ferguson said. ``The parking fees don't pay for the program. They barely pay enough to keep it maintained,'' he said, adding the state government funding for community colleges doesn't extend to campus parking.

``Community colleges have to fend for themselves a little bit differently than the K-12 districts,'' he said. ``We can take the property we own as a college system and use this `asset management' system. Basically, it's a ground lease - you don't sell the property. You lease it each year.''

Whoever leases the land would be allowed to build on it, Ferguson said. ``That's pretty valuable land there on that corner,'' he said, noting Valencia Boulevard is a busy thoroughfare with on- and off-ramps to the nearby Golden State Freeway. ``Those parking lots are in a prime area where, quite frankly, we can draw better rent.''

When College of the Canyons was built in 1970, the Santa Clarita Valley had about 70,000 residents and open land was in abundance. Since then, the region's population has more than doubled and residential neighborhoods and a business park surround the 153-acre campus.

Currently, about 7,200 students attend College of the Canyons. Campus administrators forecast that enrollment will expand to 20,000 within 12 years.

Yet in the resolution adopted by the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, the property was declared ``surplus.'' The motion said that the property ``is not now, and will not be, needed for school classroom buildings or for any other school purposes.''

Ferguson said the college likely would use the lease revenues to add more parking elsewhere on campus, perhaps as multi-level garages.

``From a strictly aesthetic standpoint, it's a pretty corner, but we're in a position where we're trying to maximize our assets,'' he said. ``We're trying to maximize its usefulness.''

Although the campus has considerable vacant land, much of it is rolling terrain, whereas the corner parcel is predominantly flat and thus much easier to develop. ``There's still a lot of acreage that's not built on. We think we have sufficient acreage to meet the (college's) needs,'' Ferguson said.

The college's master plan calls for construction of a 450-seat theater with performing arts classrooms, a new administration building, and an expansion and remodeling of the Student Center building, the latter to paid for in part by special student fees.

``We could use a new classroom building today,'' Ferguson added.

Meanwhile, the property's zoning wouldn't allow commercial or residential development there. ``You can't put a gas station or a fast-food restaurant there. It's not going to be some ugly-looking warehouse building,'' he said.

``There's some zoning requirements and there's some compatibility issues. You don't want something that will detract from the college. A movie theater or a fast-food place is not in the picture whatsoever,'' Ferguson said. ``It's going to be a nice building. It's a picturesque corner and it's a gateway to the city.''

Community colleges across the state have made similar agreements to lease campus property, Ferguson said.

At the earliest, the Valencia Boulevard/Rockwell Canyon Road parcel could be developed within two years, he estimated.