CSUDH Will Not Bamboozle Carson Again
By Carson Mayor Albert Robles
Periodically, I attend Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce morning business meetings — affectionately known as “Pancakes & Politics” — where prominent local, county and state officials address the business community. California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White was the speaker at the most recent meeting.
During his speech, White lauded the “partnerships” the various Cal State campuses have with their host cities. But I became upset as he continued speaking because such a “partnership” does not currently exist between my own city and Cal State University at Dominguez Hills.
Carson is tired of the broken promises of “partnership” and disrespect from the California State University system – both present and past. CSUDH disrespect to Carson was best exemplified during construction of the stadium complex now known as The StubHub Center. The Cal State University ran roughshod over Carson, ignoring the concerns of city officials and failing to adequately address any impacts of this for-profit stadium on our community.
Fact: Today Carson gets absolutely no revenue from the stadium — no parking fee, no ticket tax, no city host fee, nothing, zilch, nada, not so much as $1, from any event, not even the wildly profitable NFL Chargers games. In other words, Carson was bamboozled into bearing 100 percent of the inconvenience and burdens of the stadium complex, with zero percent of the financial rewards.
This brings me to my point. The CSUDH campus is now embarking on a massive Master Plan development, which includes (1) about 2,000 market-rate residential units (i.e., not student housing or not faculty housing and, unlike all other housing developments in Southern California, no affordable housing component to reduce our homelessness), (2) almost 100,000 square feet of retail/commercial space (i.e., not science labs or classrooms) and (3) a private business park that will be over 30 acres (i.e., 100 percent for-profit focused on making money instead of academic pursuits).
To reiterate, none of these elements will be undertaken for exclusively educational purposes. While Carson completely supports the university’s plans to expand its campus educational complex, this proposed massive for-profit project obviously must be extensively reviewed for its impacts on the city.
This past August, I wrote three letters to the university asking that it consult with Carson to determine which institution is best situated to undertake the environmental review for this massive development. Sadly, my letters were ignored by the chancellor. Next, we asked the city attorney’s office to reach out to the university’s lawyers. Those letters were also rejected.
In short, the California State University system has expressed no interest in consulting with Carson – and very disrespectfully and selfishly started the environmental review process over our objections. When our efforts at fostering a “partnership” proved futile, we reached out to the the California Office of Planning and Research. This office has the legal authority to resolve which public agency should undertake the environmental review process when parties cannot agree among.
What’s the big deal? Unless proper measures are taken now, this massive development will have a dramatic impact on Carson’s traffic, existing utilities, the aesthetics of our community and, in particular, the quality of life in the residential communities that surround it.
This has forced us to go to court. And as a result of a settlement conference, lawyers for Office of Planning and Research offered to rescind the university’s position as lead agency for the vitally important environmental review process.
We again invite the chancellor of the CSU system to meet with us in good faith to talk about who should perform the environmental review process. The CSU system obviously desires to have that role so as to selfishly move its development forward as quickly as possible. As CSUDH tries to run roughshod over Carson again, failing to address the impacts of its massive development on our community, it expects us to let them proceed like last time, based merely on its “promise that as partners” they will look out for Carson’s best interests.
Carson will not be bamboozled by CSUDH again.