CSUN HUB FOR BUSES EXPLAINED : NEIGHBORHOOD GETS LATE WORD ON PLAN.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

Responding to complaints that the community was not informed of plans to build a new bus station on campus, Cal State Northridge has faxed a letter to local business leaders and residents pledging ``better lines of communication in the future.''

The two-page ``fact sheet'' also included a brief description of the proposed $1.1 million transit center in an attempt to fill a ``void of information'' about the project, Cal State Northridge spokesman Bruce Erickson said Tuesday.

``The neighbors and the homeowners have a stake in what we're going to do and a legitimate interest in what goes on in this campus and a right to know,'' Erickson said. ``We have an obligation to be proactive in communicating with them.''

The fact sheet acknowledged that while the project was extensively publicized on campus, ``there was no comparable outreach made to the external community.''

``At the very least, the university should have specifically apprised the heads of neighboring homeowners associations,'' said the letter, drafted by CSUN's community relations director, Dorena Knepper. ``The university is taking steps to assure better lines of communication in the future.''

Reaction to the university's overture to the off-campus community was mixed, with officials of the Northridge Chamber of Commerce and homeowners groups continuing to call for public hearings on the project.

``We think the university needs to so some fence-mending as far as relations go, because they're acting as if their ivory towers are untouchable,'' said Richard Hardman, the chamber's executive director. ``I've gotten several calls from residents up there saying, `What are you going to do about it?' ''

On July 10, the university Board of Trustees approved plans to build the $1.1 million bus station on campus as part of a new hub-and-spoke bus system being created by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the San Fernando Valley.

The campus hub would be designed and built with MTA funding on 1-1/2 acres at Prairie Street and Zelzah Avenue.

The trustees' action came as chamber officials and several homeowners groups expressed anger at not being notified of the project in advance. They also raised concerns that the bus station would subject the immediate neighborhood to more traffic, noise and air pollution.

Campus officials have argued that the transit center will encourage more students at the commuter campus to ride buses to school rather than drive, thereby easing traffic and pollution.

Tony Pasano, president of the 1,100-member Sherwood Forest Homeowners Association, the largest group of homeowners bordering the campus, said after talking with CSUN officials that he believed the university was ``making a concerted effort to keep us informed,'' though his members still have reservations about the project itself.

Hardman said the chamber's executive board plans to meet at noon today at the University Club on campus to discuss the situation, and that he would suggest formation of a task force of residents and business owners to study the issue.

The board also would look into the origin of the March 31, 1995, letter from former chamber President Scott Spooner expressing support for the project, which current chamber officials said they have no recollection of ever being endorsed, Hardman said.

In Spooner's letter, which does not bear his signature and was not written on chamber letterhead, he writes that the transit center would ``not only lessen congestion on the main streets surrounding the university, but also will help to increase business activity amongst the local merchants.''

Spooner said Tuesday that he remembered the issue coming to the chamber's attention while he was president last year but had no specific recollection of writing a letter of support or of the executive board voting on it.

``I would have to go through the minutes of the board meetings,'' he said. ``It would not have been up to me to endorse something on behalf of the board members (without a vote).''