SDSU Neighbors Won’t Give Up Arena Fight : Courts: The homeowners group says it will appeal a ruling that clears way for construction of an entertainment complex on the campus, even though the legal costs will be high.

Despite costly legal fees, the head of a neighborhood group fighting a proposed 12,000-seat sports and entertainment complex at San Diego State University said Wednesday that a recent court decision favoring the school will be appealed.

Gary DeBusschere, president of Friends of the College Area, said homeowners spent $35,000 in each of the first two phases of litigation, which challenged the environmental impact report surrounding the proposed Student Activity Center.

Fears of increased noise, traffic and parking snafus have prompted lawsuits by two college-area homeowners’ groups.

The most recent decision, handed down in Superior Court in Vista in April, approved SDSU’s supplemental EIR and gave a tentative go-ahead to the $41-million project, which students approved by a 3-1 margin in a special referendum in early 1988.

The arena and 76,000-square-foot intramural complex are being funded with an increase in student fees from $16 to $63 per semester. Despite the delay in construction, university spokesman Rick Moore said Wednesday that students have been paying the increase for some time.

DeBusschere said homeowners filed a notice of appeal last week and expect to hear within 10 days whether the case will be reviewed by the Superior Court appellate division. If it is, a final decision is not expected before early October.

“The community feels strongly about this,” said DeBusschere, a businessman who lives near the campus. “It’s not a normal tussle between the university and a community. It has to do with the arrogance of a university moving into a new business--the field of entertainment.

“It’s like we’re living next door to a church that suddenly decides to open up a religious Disneyland. We’re upset about the mission of the university. With budgets being cut, and 550 classes being dropped, why is the school pushing so hard--and spending so much money--on this thing?”

The complex will consist of two parts--the intramural building and an arena for varsity basketball and major rock shows. The university has signed a 15-year, $4-million contract with Avalon Attractions, a Los Angeles-based rock promotions company that has exclusive control over booking as many as 31 concerts a year into the new arena.

DeBusschere said the combination of men’s and women’s basketball, “major indoor rock acts” and “dozens of other events” threatens to make the facility “a year-round enterprise that we have no control over but which directly affects our lives.”

SDSU spokesman Moore said that, despite the appeal, the school plans to move forward with construction.

“We’re surprised and disappointed” about the appeal, Moore said. “We thought (Superior Court Judge Ron Johnson) made a good decision. We feel we’ve done everything we can to comply with the spirit and the letter of his ruling--and the law--and now, we see no reason not to move ahead.”

Moore said the school hopes to break ground “by the end of the year.”

DeBusschere said the case has taxed the time, wallets and emotions of area homeowners.

Much of the legal clerical work has been handled voluntarily by the 1,000 members of Friends of the College Area--an estimated 450 households--with attorneys’ fees being paid by the group as a whole.

“It’s been hard for us to handle this,” he said. “We are not wealthy people.”

DeBusschere said the group still has about $15,000 left for attorneys’ fees and related expenses. He said the university had spent more than $50,000 for “private legal counsel” and more than $200,000 in preparing its supplement to the EIR, the difference between 150 pages and more than 1,000.

Moore could not confirm those figures.

“What’s offensive to us is that this isn’t money being spent on education,” DeBusschere said. “It’s going into big-time intercollegiate athletics, student recreation programs and commercial rock events, which are hardly essential to the lifeblood of a university.”