Council Orders Chapman College Project Ruling

Six days after Chapman College officials threatened to move the institution out of Orange because of delays in winning approval for a new building, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to force its Planning Commission to decide the structure’s fate at a Nov. 3 meeting.

The college--a 125-year-old private institution that has been based in Orange since 1954--submitted building plans for a proposed $10-million project last January.

Since that time, “the Orange city Planning Commission has subjected our applications for a conditional use permit, environmental impact report and zoning change to multiple delays,” college President G. T. (Buck) Smith told the council at a Tuesday afternoon meeting.

Smith made his threat to move the college after the Planning Commission unexpectedly reversed itself Oct. 6 and rejected the college’s environmental impact report for the facility.

Alternative Sites

City Manager J. William Little said Tuesday that the Planning Commission also was considering ordering the college to draft a new environmental report or to expand its existing report to include discussion of alternative sites. If that happens, Little said, it will delay a decision on the project an estimated 120 days.

The proposed four-story Learning Center was to be built on the eastern part of the campus near Center Street. It would house all of the college’s computer-related programs and a 150-seat Interfaith Chapel.

The private religious college had hoped to break ground last January. That hope evaporated after residents near the downtown campus began protesting the potential for parking congestion and the building’s modern design and height, which would obscure the area’s historic old homes. Now, construction of the new structure can not begin until next spring at the earliest, Smith said.

On Tuesday, Smith pleaded his college’s case before the council.

“In light of these unreasonable delays and the lack of clarity in just what the commission now intends or expects, we respectfully request the City Council to either A, call up for decision the conditional use permit, EIR and zone change, or B, instruct the Planning Commission to take action at the scheduled time Nov. 3, based on information already available to the commissioners,” Smith told council members.

In a 5-0 vote, the council chose to demand a Nov. 3 resolution by the Planning Commission. According to Little, that would mean the building proposal could reach the City Council for action as early as December.

“I think the council said it’s time to decide one way or another, and it (the proposal) will come to the council for a final decision after that,” Little said.