Steps by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District’s to acquire land for the construction of a new education center experienced a setback Oct. 27 when the Sunnyvale City Council delayed an important vote on the issue.

Sunnyvale must approve an amended land reuse plan for the Onizuka Air Force Station before the district can apply for a public benefit conveyance from the federal government. The process would transfer the land to the district for free. 

The vote, originally slated for Nov. 15, has been pushed back to Dec. 13 to finish an environmental study in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

“We are not concerned about the delay,” said Chancellor Linda Thor. “It’s important that each step of the process be concluded properly.”

The district chose Onizuka as the location for a new education center to replace inadequate facilities at the current Middlefield Campus. The district cited the free acquisition of land and proximity to highways and businesses as the reasons for its decision.

During the search, Trustee Bruce Swenson raised concerns about the site’s proximity to Mission College, citing inadequate enrollment at Mission as an sign that the new campus may suffer a similar lack of enrollment. Swenson has since dropped his concerns.

“The attendance issue at Mission College has improved recently,” Swenson said, “so all in all I am very encouraged and optimistic about the future of the Onizuka site.”

When asked about possible enrollment issues, vice chancellor of business services Kevin McElroy was optimistic and said he feels very confident in the strength of Foothill’s programs and that the demand for those programs would transfer from one location to the next.

“So it’s really the difference between two operations doing two different things,” said McElroy. “Just because they [Mission College] haven’t been catching as many fish in that part of the lake, we think our bait’s better.”

Thor said that Mission was working on a memorandum of understanding toward joint programs.

“There have been multiple meeting between the administrative staff of Foothill College and Mission College about the strengths of each of the institutions and where each one has unique programs,” said Thor. “It will be collaborative planning, collaborative operations, shared expenses, some shared staffing.”