The fate of San Diego State's proposed campus expansion will be decided at the California State University Board of Trustees meeting next week in Long Beach, but this week, the College Area Community Council was at an impasse on whether or not to support the project.
CACC President Doug Case said the board was evenly divided on the issue and decided to send a letter to the CSU Board of Trustees next week indicating that they could not come to an agreement in terms of certifying the Environmental Impact Report.
Case said several people were still concerned that mitigation relating to some infrastructure issues were insufficient.
"There is no guarantee that the money required to handle mitigation of traffic in particular will be available from the legislature or the city," Case said.
Traffic, student housing and full-time student enrollment numbers were all issues presented at the last CACC meeting on the matter.
"The council is very nitpicky, and not everyone will be 100 percent happy with the plans," Jeremy Ehrlich, vice president of external affairs for Associated Students, and a CACC board member, said.
The CACC has expressed concern that if the EIR is approved, the CSU can proceed with the expansion project, even if the money is not made available.
"It seems to us (the CACC) that SDSU's calculations of (the CSU's) fair share are unrealistically low," Case said. "We agreed we would work with the university to lobby the city council and government to provide funding (for the project)."
Funding will be requested in next year's state budget.
Case said unless the state legislature agrees to fund the CSU's fair share of necessary mitigation measures, another alternative should be selected. The CACC believes that the "5,000 full-time equivalent students alternative" would be best, because it would provide additional classrooms and parking.
This plan would cap enrollment at 30,000 students each year, rather than the existing plan's 35,000 enrollment ceiling, and significantly reduce the Alvarado campus project.
The current master plan calls for an increase in student enrollment by 10,000 FTES over the next two decades.
"The CACC doesn't necessarily support the EIR, but they support the improvements (the school is trying to make)," Ehrlich said. "But the campus needs this expansion."
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