CSUN’s Plan for Retail Center

* Cal State Northridge has announced a plan to build an “upscale retail center” on 20 acres of the North Campus tract on Devonshire Street, between Zelzah and Lindley avenues. For whatever reasons, the Valley Edition seems to have ignored coverage of this plan and has appeared to confine itself to printing one-sided press releases issued by CSUN’s public relations personnel.

This “local” issue hides many potentially precedent-setting problems. For example, is it a proper use of land, dedicated for educational use, to be converted to commercial purposes? CSUN, crying poverty, claims that a shopping center will solve its future problems for a reliable and predictable income stream, and, if they don’t get their way, student fees will have to be raised or educational opportunities will suffer cutbacks.

Yet to be resolved is the issue of how the city Planning Commission will react. This is state-owned land, zoned for educational purposes, and surrounded by city land in an almost entirely residential community. Conversion from educational use to commercial use should require a zone change and plan amendment public hearing by the city Planning Commission so that adequate mitigations against excessive traffic congestion, noise, pollution and many other negative environmental impacts are built in.

I urge The Times to report on why the surrounding community, Chambers of Commerce of Granada Hills and Northridge and nearby homeowners associations are so opposed to this project. Evenhanded coverage is to all our benefit. I invite CSUN to open its doors to a truly public debate where both sides of the issue can be candidly addressed.

ROGER S. WALDBAUM

Northridge