CSUN Panel to Consider 2 Sites for New Stadium

Over fierce opposition from neighbors, a Cal State Northridge committee voted Monday night to consider building an 8,000-seat stadium on the north end of the campus between Lindley and Zelzah avenues, or on a site off campus.

Members of the 12-member Athletic Facilities Siting Advisory Committee--composed of residents, faculty and administrators--voted 7 to 3 to consider a 4- to 6-acre site on the campus, a block south of the current stadium.

To placate the 200 angry residents--some of whom came to the meeting with signs reading “‘No stadium in our neighborhood,” and “8,500 seats, more lies”--the committee also promised to consider a proposal to locate the facility off the campus, possibly at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

The committee had considered a number of different sites and stadium options in advance of its final recommendation next month to CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson.

It now appears Wilson’s options will come down to replacing the existing 7,500-seat football stadium on the same area of the campus or moving it to an off-campus site.

“After tonight’s meeting, committee chair David Honda indicated that the panel’s work is not yet done,” said CSUN spokesman John Chandler. “The committee will require at least one more meeting.”

The same committee voted earlier to scale down the stadium from the originally proposed 15,000 seats to 8,500.

Monday night, the panel approved consideration of a stadium near the present stadium site, to be built into a hillside for reduced noise and with entrances on busy thoroughfares such as Devonshire and Lassen streets to keep traffic away from residents on Lindley and Zelzah avenues.

That did little to mollify those in attendance, who at times shouted down committee members and other speakers to voice their displeasure with any effort to build near their homes.

“It’s inevitable that sooner or later they’ll use it for some other event,” in addition to college athletic contests, said Irving Feiles, who lives next to the North Campus in the Northridge Town Home Estates. “I would think to raise money for the university they would have to put the stadium to greater use.”

Other Northridge homeowners with a long history of opposition to the stadium plan vowed to go to court if necessary to prevent final approval of the project.

“How will they guarantee that they will not hold loud rock concerts in there?” asked Frank Canter, a member of the Northridge-Zelzah Estates homeowners group, before the Monday night meeting. “If in fact they proceed in engaging in what we perceive to be nuisance activities, we would have no choice but to take action in the courts.”

With other campus development plans in the works--such as an $80-million biotechnology park complex in the university’s North Campus--Canter and other homeowners worry CSUN is getting too big.

“You have what was originally intended to be a small commuter school attempting to expand beyond its limitations,” Canter said. “Their emphasis should not be on sports. People go there to learn and to conduct business.”

After its former athletic league folded, CSUN in 1995 joined the Big Sky Conference, which required the school to pledge to replace its old football stadium with a new one comparable to those of the other schools in the conference.