An application has been submitted to the county for a significant redevelopment project at the university. The City Council has no authority over the project.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Major changes could be on the horizon for the student housing and athletic facilities at Pepperdine University’s 35-year-old Malibu campus. The university recently submitted an application to Los Angeles County for what it is calling the Campus Life Project, a 520,000-square-foot proposal that would radically increase the size of its athletic facilities and allow for more students to live on campus.
Since Pepperdine is not located within the city boundaries, the City Council has no authority over its construction proposals. The project will be reviewed by the county’s Department of Regional Planning, the Board of Supervisors and, for final approval, the California Coastal Commission. There is no timeline for the project, although the application states most of the features will take two to three years to construct. An environmental impact report, including a traffic study, is being drafted for the project. Rhiannon Pregitzer, Pepperdine’s director of regulatory affairs, said the document could be completed by the summer.
Pregitzer said she expects homeowners living near Pepperdine, specifically in Malibu Country Estates, will be concerned about the possible increase of traffic in the area.
“As we go through our development process, a huge concern for us is to consider our neighbors, and we will keep them informed about the situation,” Pregitzer said.
She added, “Since there is not an increase in student enrollment and more housing will be built, it will actually be a traffic improvement rather than a negative.”
Pregitzer said she has spoken with the Malibu Country Estates Homeowners Association board about the project, and met with a few people in the neighborhood. The homeowners’ association president could not be reached for comment for this story.
A source told The Malibu Times last week that at least one homeowners association in Malibu is already looking to challenge the Pepperdine project. Pregitzer said she was unaware of this.
The most significant portion of the proposal is the creation of a 75-foot-high, 239,000-square-foot athletic facility on the existing 5.1-acre RHO Parking Lot. The facility would replace the existing 47,000-square-foot Firestone Fieldhouse, where the men’s and women’s volleyball and basketball teams currently play.
“Upon completion of the Firestone Fieldhouse in 1973, the facility was the ‘jewel’ of the WCC [West Coast Conference], however [today], the Fieldhouse is outdated, undersized and one of the least preferred basketball venues in the conference,” the application states.
The new facility would include an athletic/events center with 5,000 permanent seats (nearly 2,000 more than Firestone Fieldhouse), and the ability to increase the capacity to nearly 6,700 seats by the use of temporary floor seating. The structure would also include locker rooms for visiting and home teams, meeting rooms for teams and “improved strength and conditioning space for all student-athletes.”
Additionally, space would be allocated for individual and group studying, equipment storage, media coverage, concessions and fundraising events.
Also, the university’s Department of Public Safety would be moved to the building to free up space elsewhere on campus for academic use. Adjacent to the athletic structure would be 182 underground parking spaces and 203 surface spaces.
Pregitzer said the new facility would not only bring Pepperdine up to WCC standards, it would give the school a better chance to host major athletic events, including the WCC men’s and women’s postseason basketball tournaments.
“We have applied for events like that in the past, and we were rejected,” Pregitzer said. “It [the reason] is the state of our facilities.
Firestone Fieldhouse, in turn, would be transformed into a student recreation center. The building has already been approved for renovations to expand to 73,000 square feet in size by 2009. The new project would enlarge the facility another 11,000 square feet.
A second new sports facility proposed by Pepperdine is a soccer field. The 240-foot by 360-foot field would include bleacher seats accommodating more than 1,000 spectators. The facility would be built near the proposed athletic center. The area currently consists of an intramural field, parking lot and vacant space.
The application states that the Pepperdine women’s soccer team’s current home at Tari Frahm Rokus Field is inadequate for NCAA play because of insufficient lighting and overcrowding from other activities.
“The [proposed] soccer field would meet the present and future institutional needs of the university’s soccer program,” the application states. “This includes providing an NCAA compliant competition venue to meet the needs of the existing women’s soccer team and a possible future men’s team.”
The current soccer field would be transformed into a 1,268-space parking structure that would include office spaces in the basement, and a synthetic field and NCAA compliant running track on the top.
In addition to use for NCAA competition, the facility could be used for recreational and intramural sports.
Other features of the project include the redesign of the school’s Seaver residence halls to provide for a net gain of 650 beds and a Seaver Town Square, which would include a quad area for outdoor classrooms and recreation and new structures for parking and other uses.