College’s Plan to Move Industrial Plant Draws Protest

Irate residents of a small Claremont community launched a petition campaign Tuesday against a proposal to move a physical plant from one end of a college town street to the other.

Living in homes considered historical by Los Angeles standards, residents of the 1940s community known as “Village East” are up in arms over Claremont University Center’s proposal to move its physical plant from the north end of 1st Street to the south end, where it would loom over the close-knit neighborhood.

“It started out as a shock to me that the colleges would build a major industrial plant overlooking Elder Drive,” said community activist Gloria Ginsberg. “I hope they feel shamed enough not to do it.”

The university center, the managerial arm of the six Claremont colleges, uses the plant as the campuses’ maintenance facility.

But Pomona College--the Claremont system’s biggest and oldest--owns the lot and wants to convert the buildings into classrooms, said Jim German, a spokesman for the Claremont University Center.

A move is necessary, and the proposed site--an overgrown lot that has stood vacant for at least 50 years--is ideal because it is already zoned for industrial use, German said.

The colleges’ application is not yet complete and no hearings are scheduled until March, but the community’s grass-roots efforts may speed discussion about the proposal.

“It’s not on the agenda,” said City Planner Lisa Prasse before Tuesday night’s planning commission meeting.

“But I have a feeling because of all the fervor of the last few weeks, some of the commissioners are going to ask, ‘What is going on?’ ”