Northridge Mall, City Agree on $6-Million Jog in Nordhoff Street

A long-delayed $6-million project to connect two segments of Nordhoff Street has been revived in a tentative settlement between city officials and the owners of Northridge Fashion Center.

As part of the settlement, which was disclosed Thursday, the mall’s owners will contribute about $1.5 million to build a 2,000-foot connector and make other nearby traffic improvements.

Since 1972, the city has sought to make Nordhoff a continuous east-west street in the vicinity of the fashion center.

But, because of the cost of the project, which will include a bridge over the Southern Pacific railroad tracks and Limekiln Creek, it has not gotten a high priority, city officials said.

City Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents Northridge, in February delayed approval of a major expansion of the mall until the owners, U. K. Northridge, agreed to pay for local traffic improvements.

Paul M. Wilson, senior vice president of Richard Ellis Inc., which manages the mall, said Thursday, “It appears that, as of yesterday, we finally have an agreement with the councilman, the city and with the center.”

Wilson said the pact is subject to agreement on “minor details” regarding additional traffic improvements and approval by the directors of U. K. Northridge, a privately held British firm owned by about 50 United Kingdom pension funds.

“But the basic agreement is there,” he said, “and I think everything ultimately will be resolved.”

Greig Smith, Bernson’s chief of staff, said the councilman is “very happy” with the agreement and predicted it will “solve some long-standing traffic problems in the area.”

Smith said federal funds will cover the rest of the connector’s cost.

The block-long gap in Nordhoff at Corbin forces motorists on Nordhoff to follow a Z-shaped path and causes heavy congestion because of the many left-turning vehicles, city traffic officials said.

Bernson forced fashion center officials to the negotiating table in February when he got the council to pass a motion to place a one-year moratorium on building permits on or near the mall’s property.

The moratorium proposal was sent to the city Planning Commission for a public hearing, but has languished on the commission’s agenda while negotiations continued.

Although the moratorium was never enacted, the threat deterred the center’s owners from proceeding with plans to add 325,000 square feet to the 1.2 million-square-foot mall, Wilson said.

The expansion would add May Co. and Robinson’s department stores to the center. Among the mall’s 145 existing stores are Sears, J. C. Penney, Bullock’s and The Broadway.