Staff Urges Approval of University’s Plan

The City Council should approve Cal Lutheran University’s proposed master plan to expand and improve its campus, a city staff report says, but it should impose about 100 conditions to lessen effects on the area.

The conditions would require the university to address noise, traffic, air and water quality issues as well as increased demands on police and fire services and city infrastructure.

The proposed conditions, however, do not specifically address concerns voiced by a group of residents living near the southwest corner of the campus.

The university’s 20-year plan, which would more than double its current building space, includes new academic facilities, classrooms, administration offices, a performing arts center, a $40-million athletic center, dormitories and faculty housing.

The plan would meet the future needs of the school while being sensitive to the surrounding community and environment, the city staff concluded.

In its report, city staff members evaluated the concerns raised by some residents living on Cedar Heights Drive, where the university plans to build faculty housing and dormitories near homes. After the university requested a two-week delay to consider the residents’ grievances, the city determined that all the concerns had been addressed by past environmental impact reviews. Lawrence Marquart, a senior city planner, said residents’ concerns over loss of privacy due to the project are also addressed in the reviews.

“We try to address it from the standpoint of major public roadways,” Marquart said. “We can’t position ourselves from the perspectives of every person’s backyard.”

The university has offered to make some changes to address residents’ concerns. In a letter to residents, university officials promised to alter the direction of Faculty Road slightly to the south, reduce grading on a hillside separating the residents from the university, improve natural vegetation, move the student housing farther north and reconfigure a planned parking lot.

The council will consider the master plan at its regular weekly meeting at 6 p.m. today at 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.