POMONA >> Cal Poly Pomona is one of two sites the state Air Resources Board is considering to relocate the facility it now houses in El Monte, university administrators told a group of College of Agriculture students Tuesday.

If the Air Resources Board, which is also considering UC Riverside as a possible site, chooses Pomona, it would need no more than 17 acres of the approximately 150-acre Spadra Farm for its offices and labs, said Walter Marquez, Cal Poly associate vice president of facilities planning and management.

However, College of Agriculture students, and some from other academic disciplines, immediately expressed their objection to using farmland for such a project.

“The school has chosen 17 acres of the best farmland,” said Haley Esparza, a business major and resident of Walnut, after the meeting. The land is rich soil and a valuable educational resource to students in the various fields that fall under the College of Agriculture, she said.

More than 100 students gathered for an informational meeting held in the Bronco Student Center where Marquez discussed the Air Resources Board’s potential plans.

Students said during the meeting that using part of the Spadra Farm, which is located along Pomona Boulevard on the western end of Pomona, would represent another loss of land the College of Agriculture uses.

In August, university administrators announced 13 acres of horse pasture land will be used to build on-campus housing.

Senior Don Quigley, a Bellflower resident majoring in plant science, echoed others’ concerns about the loss of farmland and the effect on their studies.

“A big concern with the university is that they’re trying to phase out the College of Agriculture chunk by chunk,” he said. “They say, ‘We’re just taking this and this.’ ”

Marquez said no plans exist for eliminating the College of Agriculture or any other college.

Students asked how having the Air Resources Board would boost their programs.

Marquez was hard-pressed to answer.

“It’s hard to say what the benefit is to you here today,” he said, adding that benefits will come.

Spadra Farm as a possible site to relocate the Air Resources Board’s office and labs was first raised in January 2013, when agency representatives approached Charles Reed, then chancellor of the California State University system, and asked which university might be interested in having the agency on campus, Marquez said.

Cal Poly was suggested because it has Innovation Village, an area on the edge of the campus that has accommodated businesses that also provide research and educational opportunities to students and faculty.

By late January 2013, the Air Resources Board approached then Cal Poly Pomona President Michael Ortiz.

Innovation Village, however, was no longer an option after one of the businesses already there expressed an interest in expanding, Marquez said. That expansion meant less land was available to accommodate the Air Resources Board.

Finding ways to accommodate the Air Resources Board came up in discussions related to the transfer of the Lanterman Developmental Center to Cal Poly, Marquez said.

The State Department of Finance made a condition of the transfer of the Lanterman Developmental Center — which is on state property adjacent to Spadra Farm — that the university house the Air Resources Board, the California Highway Patrol and the California Conservation Corps on campus.

The Conservation Corps, which has been on the Lanterman property for some time, will remain there, Marquez said. The CHP will use a maximum of 10 acres located on the far northeastern end of the campus, where it would be near the 10 and 57 freeways.

The Air Resources Board is expected to make the site selection in February, Marquez said.