Cal Lutheran Details Campus Development Plans

Cal Lutheran University officials unveiled a plan to expand their campus Tuesday night, offering the City Council and about two dozen residents details about dormitories, academic buildings and athletic facilities planned for 290 acres of the campus.

The plan calls for additional classrooms, dormitories and a performing arts complex seating 500 to 700 on the main campus south of Olsen Road. Sports-related facilities--including a gymnasium-events center, swimming pool, a football stadium and tennis courts--are proposed for part of a 200-acre portion of campus north of Olsen.

After the one-hour presentation at a planning workshop, council members and the public asked questions about effects on neighborhoods, including traffic, noise and lights. They also expressed concern for protection of the largely undeveloped north campus--which includes the Mount Clef ridgeline, a small creek and wetlands.

The council hailed the private university as a community asset, but encouraged university planners to address their neighbors’ concerns and include them in the planning process.

“I urge you to hold as many community meetings as possible--the more the better,” Councilman Andy Fox told the panel of four university representatives. “People have already expressed a desire to participate in this process.”

Only a handful of people who live near the campus showed up at Tuesday’s study session, the first step in updating the university’s Master Plan, a long-range blueprint for campus development.

Jalane Sclafani said she didn’t want buildings to replace her view of an expansive grassy meadow, part of the reason she moved to the area.

“I wanted to buy into a neighborhood, not just a home,” said the Fallen Oaks Drive resident, who is a Cal Lutheran graduate. “I’m not against CLU. I’m against the overdevelopment of our beautiful, beautiful city.”

Her neighbor, Kim Rollins, echoed the sentiment by saying: “Green is much better than concrete any day.”

After the meeting, the women said they planned to organize a door-to-door campaign to inform their neighbors about the school’s plan and to ask them to participate in future public hearings.

Both women, however, said they were impressed by the university’s presentation and said the proposed expansion was not as intense as they had feared.

As student enrollment is anticipated to increase from 2,500 to 3,600 in the next two decades, university officials want to increase square footage of their academic buildings from 450,000 to as much as 1.25 million. New classroom space and student housing would be built on the current campus, south of Olsen Road.

To enhance the appearance of the campus, two entrances will be constructed--one at Olsen and Campus Drive, and another on Mountclef Boulevard between Olsen and West Faculty Street.

To create a buffer between homes to the east and more intense development in the middle of the parcel, open ball fields for softball and soccer would be located along Mountclef Boulevard. A tree-lined promenade would border the property on Mountclef and on the west side along the recently extended Campus Drive.

Mayor Pro Tem Linda Parks asked for assurances that Mount Clef ridge would remain undeveloped. She asked Cal Lutheran to reconsider its plans to install night lights and a public address system to the proposed football stadium.

“We’re very encouraged,” university President Luther Luedtke said after the study session. “The general spirit is that we’ve shared some very good news, that has started people thinking about how it can be even better good news.”

University officials are scheduling a series of neighborhood meeting in the next week to gather more public comments.