Prospect of Northridge Mall Expansion Spurs Review : 14-Year-Old Plan for Nordhoff Bridge Gains New Life

Concern about traffic around a proposed expansion of the Northridge Fashion Center may lead the Los Angeles City Planning Commission to revive a long-dormant plan to bridge a gap in Nordhoff Street between Corbin and Tampa avenues.

The suggestion to revive the 14-year-old plan emerged at a hearing by the Planning Commission Thursday in Van Nuys.

Ralph Crouch, planning deputy to City Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the northwestern San Fernando Valley, said the proposed bridge had been discussed recently by Bernson, developers of the fashion center and members of the Planning Commission staff.

Reason for Gap

The gap in Nordhoff Street at Corbin Avenue is caused by a railroad track and Limekiln Creek, a storm drain. The street reaches Corbin from the east at a point about a block north of the intersection where the street reaches Corbin from the west. Through traffic on Nordhoff follows a Z-shaped path onto and off of Corbin.

The project would build a .37-mile bridge, slightly S-shaped, over the tracks and the channel. It would link a point just west of the existing intersection of Nordoff and Tampa to the point where Nordhoff now meets Corbin from the west.

It would be desirable to route through traffic on Nordhoff to the south of the Fashion Center, moving it away from the traffic the expanded center is expected to generate, said Jim Williams, a civil engineer for the Department of Public Works.

Low Priority

The bridge, proposed in 1972, has had a low priority beside other city plans, largely because of its estimated $6-million cost, Crouch said.

Bernson, who has acted to block expansion of the mall, at least temporarily, suggested reviving the bridge plan because a larger mall would create more traffic congestion in the area, Crouch said.

The group that owns the mall plans to add several department stores and increase the center’s size from 1.1 million square feet to 1.5 million square feet.

Bernson has appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of the expansion and is also asking a building moratorium in the area around the mall.

Issue of Funding

Basil Ung, an engineer for the city Department of Public Works, said negotiations would have to establish who would pay the cost of the bridge. Crouch and Ung said federal funds could pay for as much as 86% of the outlay.

James H. Kinney, an attorney for U. K. Northridge Inc., owner of the mall, told the hearing that requiring the developer to pay the full cost of the bridge “would put a death knell on my client’s project.”

Further discussion of Bernson’s requests, as well as the proposed bridge, was continued until the commission’s next meeting in the Valley on May 22.