Chapman College Threatens to Move From Orange : Possibility Raised After Planning Commission Rejects Proposed Classroom Building

Chapman College’s battle for the right to construct a $10-million new classroom building on its campus has escalated to the point that college president G. T. (Buck) Smith is threatening to move the 125-year-old private institution from Orange.

“We have other communities that are interested in having a first-rate college with a national reputation in their community,” Smith said in a recent interview. “We’d like to be in Orange, but if it interferes with our viability as a high-quality college, then we may have to go somewhere else.”

Chapman is an independently owned, 2,100-student, four-year college that is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The college was founded in Woodland in 1861, moved to Los Angeles around the turn of the century, then moved again to Orange in 1954. It has a long list of distinguished alumni and faculty.

Smith made the threat to move the college after the Orange Planning Commission on Oct. 6 unexpectedly reversed itself and rejected the college’s environmental impact report for a proposed new building. The commission had previously approved the environmental statement on Sept. 3.

Forces Revision of Timetable

Assistant City Planner Joan Wolff said the commissioners reversed their approval because they wanted to review more information on the proposal. “They felt they hadn’t reviewed a sufficient number of alternatives to approve what they had been asked to approve,” Wolff said.

The Planning Commission’s action forces the college to again revise a construction timetable for the proposed four-story Learning Center to be built on the eastern part of the campus, near Center Street.

The college had hoped to break ground last January, but that hope evaporated after residents near the college began to protest about parking congestion and the building’s design. Construction of the new structure now could not begin until next spring at the earliest, Smith said Wednesday.

The Learning Center would house all of the college’s computer-related programs, including the School of Business and Management--the largest academic program at the college. A 150-seat Interfaith Chapel also would be in the new building.

Its funding already has been assured by private donations, Smith said. “But you can imagine how the donors feel about these delays in getting the building under construction,” he added.

If construction is not under way by February, the college stands to fall behind schedule by a full academic year because the learning center is expected to take 18 months to complete, said Thomas Beck, an assistant to Smith.

“We run on academic cycles--from September to September. So if we don’t open (the center) by Sept. 1, we lose a whole year. . . . We are again approaching . . . January, February. Somewhere in that zone, we begin to get awfully close to losing another year,” he said.

Root of Controversy

Residents’ fears about parking congestion and their unhappiness with the design of the new building are at the root of the controversy.

The college’s plans call for a 63-foot-tall structure. Yet present zoning restrictions limit building heights to 30 feet in the residential area around the college, although one existing college building also is 63 feet tall.

“This new building wouldn’t be any taller than our science building, which has been there since 1968,” Smith said. “We’ve already taken care of the parking spaces, but now the residents say they don’t want the parking area to be where we bought more land. So we’re being whipsawed.”

But some residents of the Old Towne area of Orange have countered that the college is “insensitive” to the residential area surrounding it.

Old Towne borders Chapman College. Roughly bordered by Batavia Street, Walnut Avenue, Cambridge Street and La Veta Avenue, Old Towne is an area of early-1900 homes. The new, high-rise college building would detract from the character of Old Towne, some residents have argued.

“We are not anti-development,” said Debbie McLaughlin, a committee chairman for the Old Towne Preservation Assn. “But there are proper places for high-rise buildings, and this isn’t one of them. In the winter time, some of our residents would be blocked from the sun by 3:30 p.m., and that means turning on the lights and the heat that much earlier. Also, we see this building as a precedent. If the Planning Commission allows this, all the other developers will want high-rises when they seek to build in this area.”

Dale Rahn, president of the Old Towne Preservation Assn., said, “We’re not against Chapman College. We’re against this building. Its height and mass are inappropriate for Old Towne. The architectural facade is not in keeping with the aesthetic nature of the Old Towne district. We’d like to have the building either moved (to another site) or modified.”

Smith, the college president, said, in rebuttal, “We have met with the residents and already made changes. We’ve spent more than $200,000 in design costs and another $800,000 to get land for parking.”

Continued Pressure Vowed

In a letter mailed in September to residents of the area near the college, Smith said: “With five buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Preservation, the college has a primary concern for preserving the character of our community. At the same time, we recognize the need to blend this heritage with the economic and technological realities which are now a part of our everyday lives.”

Some residents, however, have responded that they’re still not happy with the proposed new building, and they have vowed to keep pressure on the city Planning Commission.

But Smith said the Planning Commission’s unexpected reversal of its previous approval has already put the college in a Catch-22, no-win situation. While normally an owner can appeal a Planning Commission action, “the city attorney has told the college this can’t be appealed because nothing has really happened . . . there is no action to appeal.”

Smith, however, said an appeal may be attempted nonetheless. He added that the college is disappointed at how it’s being treated. “We’re going to reassess our future as an institution and decide if we’re going to reinvest in this campus,” he said.