| Home Depot Center
Expansion Gets CSU Trustees’ OK
Two important hurdles were cleared
on Feb. 1, when the California State University (CSU)
Board of Trustees gave final approval to two lingering
issues on the California State University, Dominguez
Hills campus, one of which could generate annual revenues
of $450,000 for the University.
In May, 2005, contingencies
were placed on the final Supplemental Environmental
Impact Report for the Phase 2 expansion of the Home
Depot Center (HDC), contingencies that the CSU Chancellor’s
Office was to monitor. Chancellor Charles Reed on
Tuesday, Jan. 31, declared that the requirements
had been met, clearing the way for the trustees to
give final approval for the $55 million building
program that includes a 60,000-square-foot athletics
training center and office complex, a 50,000-square-foot
field house and training center, a 240-bed athletic
residential facility, and a 200-room hotel.
The HDC owner, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG),
which also owns the Staples Center in Los Angeles,
will pay for all of the Phase 2 expansion. It is estimated
that when the expansion is complete it will generate
at least $450,000 a year for the campus. Next, campus
and AEG officials will sit down and finalize documents
and the timing of construction.
The contingencies included that the chancellor make
a determination that there are no outstanding material
issues of noncompliance in any agreements between the
university and AEG and the nearby University Heights
community; a written agreement by AEG that includes
reference to CSU Dominguez Hills in all AEG media releases,
announcements and broadcasts of events at the Home
Depot Center, and a further commitment by AEG to acquire
that same agreement from all third-party users of the
facility; and a determination by the chancellor that
the revenue resulting from the second phase of HDC
is equivalent to comparable market rates.
Also approved by the
trustees was the final Supplemental Environmental
Impact Report concerning the permanent lights at
the track-and-field site. The Trustees’ Committee
on Campus Planning, Buildings and Grounds voted its
final approval Tuesday, Jan. 31, for the lights,
then turned it over to the trustees, who approved
it Feb. 1. The lights originally were to be installed
by AEG as temporary lighting, but instead were installed
as permanent lighting. Since then, AEG has planted
landscaping, put screening on the backs of bleachers,
and angled the lighting more sharply downward. A
fund is now being set up to pay for curtains and
blinds for any nearby residents still affected by
the lights who want them.
The university is now authorized
to use the lights. However, at
this time there are no nighttime events scheduled at
the field for the month of February.
-Russell Hudson
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