Sports Chalet to Propose Scaled-Down Mall Plan

The Sports Chalet will submit a scaled-down version of an expansion plan that previously met with neighborhood opposition under new zoning approved this week by the La Canada Flintridge City Council.

The owner of the Sports Chalet, one of the city’s largest retailers, has long wanted to build a small shopping center that would enable the store to expand and would also house several businesses that the expansion would displace. The store’s president said the company plans to submit an expansion proposal to the city in August.

The company proposed a 9.5-acre shopping center in 1984, but withdrew those plans when neighbors mounted well-organized opposition. The new proposal will be a scaled-down version of the original plan, Sports Chalet President Sam Allen said.

Under the new zoning, the city has established a transitional zone, called the Foothill Community District Zone, that encompasses a Foothill Boulevard corridor known as the “island.”

The island, formed by the intersection of the Foothill Freeway and Foothill Boulevard and bounded by Angeles Crest Highway on the west and Oakwood Avenue on the east, has long been designated for commercial development but zoned for mixed commercial and residential use. There are about 65 houses on the island, 25 of them owned by the Sports Chalet.

The new zoning calls for prospective developers on the island to amass a full acre--about six lots--then apply to the city for permission to build commercial or multiple-residential development. The approval process requires public hearings.

Most homeowners, businessmen and civic leaders in La Canada Flintridge support the new zoning. However, several island homeowners said they fear the rezoning eventually may bring commercial development into their neighborhood.