A Smarter Plan for CSUN Site

After harsh criticism from neighbors, Cal State Northridge administrators have reworked their plans for the university’s North Campus property. The result: a sensible proposal that complements the school’s strengths and protects the surrounding neighborhood from the kind of intrusion a retail project would have brought.

At a meeting late last month, CSUN President Blenda Wilson said: “We are not now considering hotels and retail and all kinds of things.” Instead, the school plans to attract biomedical, biotechnical and entertainment companies to establish a working research park on the site. That should be welcome news to critics of past plans to build a retail shopping center on land north of the school.

Neighbors feared increased traffic. Small merchants feared increased competition. Both groups generally agreed that the university should use the land for some sort of for-profit venture to ease pressure on its perpetually tight budget. But they believed--as does The Times--that the state-owned land should have a strong connection to the university’s academic programs. A shopping center where students could earn minimum wage as they staffed cash registers or stocked shelves simply didn’t fit the bill. Plus, a scaled-down version of the proposal would have earned the university just $384,500 a year--hardly enough to balance the ill will it would have generated.

By contrast, the new proposal could generate between $2 million and $3 million a year for the university. As part of the project--the specifics of which are still emerging--students and faculty would have access to top-notch research facilities and equipment. In turn, private companies would be able to tap the considerable intellectual talent of CSUN students and instructors. Part of the property would also be used for traditional campus facilities such as sports fields and apartments.

No project is without impact. If a thriving research and entertainment industry complex emerges around CSUN, there will be traffic and undoubtedly there will be noise. But the traffic would be more predictable and the noise would occur largely during the daytime--not at all like the fairly constant noise and traffic of a shopping center. Purely from a land-use perspective, the new proposal promises to be better for the neighborhood. In an even larger context, though, the new project promises to be better for CSUN--an opportunity for it to leverage its strongest assets and connect to local businesses that tomorrow will employ today’s students.