CSUN Changes Give Neighbors Growing Pains

There are 23 “No Parking” signs on the quarter-mile block of Kinzie Street where Frank and Mary Lou Capka live.

They contend that every last one is needed. Cal State Northridge, after all, is just around the corner.

When the couple moved into the neighborhood 40 years ago, the land was filled with orange trees and riders on horseback. Many roads were unpaved. The university consisted of a few moderate-sized buildings.

The Capkas never expected things to stay the same, they just didn’t expect quite so much change. One thing, though, has been constant, they said.

“I don’t think the university has ever done a good job of letting us homeowners know what was going on,” Mary Lou Capka said. “I feel like I’ve spent a lot of years reading things in the newspaper and then responding to them.”

CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson last year promised to improve community relations after the public relations debacle created by her decision to cut four popular men’s sports. But relations with the public are still troubled. Just this month it took the threat of a lawsuit by homeowners to get Wilson to remove a proposed 15,000-seat stadium from the school’s master plan.

Dorena Knepper, director of government and community relations for CSUN, said the university is about halfway to a “seamless relationship” with neighbors.

Neighbors for the most part supported plans for an ambitious biotech park on the North Campus--a public-private venture that administrators said could generate $800,000 a year for the school. But they were willing to block the park to keep a stadium away from Lindley Avenue and Halsted Street.

They made the threat knowing that Sylmar businessman Alfred Mann, who is financing the park, would look elsewhere if he couldn’t break ground in June.

The decision to remove the stadium from the master plan just days before going to the board of trustees left CSUN with no long-range plans for a football venue.

“Somebody’s ox is always going to get gored,” said City Councilman Hal Bernson, who has represented the 12th District, which includes the university, since 1979.

Over the years local homeowners have objected to and blocked numerous proposals for the campus.

In 1992, a $200-million University Park project on North Campus, including apartments, a hotel and retail space, faltered after months of delays. A proposed transportation hub on campus was killed in 1996 after neighbors and faculty protested. Last year, a retail shopping center proposed for North Campus was stopped by community complaints.

Each of those projects also had supporters who were disappointed with the outcome. In the case of the stadium, Wilson’s decision relieved some neighbors but angered other local residents and numerous CSUN students.

Les Himes, president of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, said he feels betrayed and wonders if CSUN will ever build a new football facility, something the school has been promising to do for years.

Christopher Silvers, a student government representative, plans to introduce a resolution in favor of the stadium at an Associated Students meeting later this month.

“I think it’s going to take the university playing hardball on this,” Silvers said. “Until President Wilson does that, I think she’s going to have a lot of students wondering where her loyalties are.”

University officials, including Art Elbert, vice president for administration and finance, insist the stadium is not dead, only delayed.

John Chandler, a CSUN spokesman, said some of the controversies at the 25,000-student school can be attributed to growing pains. The 353-acre campus, once the site of a squash field, but now surrounded by busy streets, retail establishments and homes, is still building the facilities expected of a major university, he said.

“We’re only 40 years old,” Chandler said.

CSUN’s mission is further complicated by its extremely close proximity to some neighbors, most of whom moved in after the university already existed.

Some houses are so close to university grounds that Dale Dye, president of a local homeowners association, expressed concern at the board of trustees meeting last week that a proposed parking garage on Halsted Street would provide students with a view into second-story bedroom windows.

But Knepper said that other speakers at the same meeting complained about congested street parking, a problem the parking garage was meant to alleviate.

“It isn’t possible to make everyone happy,” she said.

Those who live west of Lindley Avenue said the school has changed the plans for the land near their homes so many times it is hard to keep track.

When the Capkas moved to Kinzie Street they were told a botanical garden and private residence for the CSUN president would be built where student apartments now stand.

A billboard at Lindley Avenue and Halsted Street was erected in the late 1980s to announce that the open field was the future site of a football stadium. But during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the billboard fell and was never put back up. In the meantime, two sites on the North Campus were considered for the stadium but dropped when nearby townhouse owners hired a lawyer.

The situation has been so contentious at times that some neighbors have suggested the university tear down the largest remaining orange grove in the San Fernando Valley and build a stadium there.

But the eight-acre grove on Nordhoff Street is protected as a Los Angeles city monument.

Wilson sent a letter to local homeowners Thursday inviting them to a public meeting June 2 at 6 p.m. at the student union to discuss plans for the university, including the stadium.

Knepper said the school is trying to keep in mind its mission to serve the needs of a large region.

“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “But we don’t only serve the 300 families who live in that neighborhood, we serve the whole San Fernando Valley.”