Northridge Vision 2025

Whether it was new building projects, or infrastructure improvements, or good old fashioned volunteer elbow power, 2016 was a good year for Northridge and creative and sustainable development. The second-annual Matador Day of Service found approximately 400 CSUN students and volunteers taking to the streets on Sept. 10 in a school-wide effort to clean the campus and neighboring communities.   Matador volunteers spread out around campus and the surrounding community after gathering at Bayramian Lawn.   The event, which was designed to clean up campus and the neighboring Northridge community, was a huge success and much bigger than in 2015, said co-event organizer Don Larson. A new design for the Parthenia and Reseda median area, including the installation of a new illuminated flag pole, has been in development since early fall.   The median will be landscaped with drought-tolerant plants, improving its appearance and saving water.   The pr

The mixed use project at 8350 Reseda Blvd, the site of the old Cadillac dealership, is in its final planning stages.   At nearly three and a half acres, the project will see the aging car dealership and its outbuildings be replaced by commercial retail, rental units and small lot subdivision town homes.    The project will include 10, 300 square ft. of retail, 61 town homes and 79 rental units.   The town homes are comprised of one and two bedroom plans, some units with loft spaces as well.   The rental space is a mix of two bedrooms and 2.5 baths units, as well as three bedroom and three bath plans.   The retail element, fronting Reseda Blvd, is designed with a series of open plaza spaces, intended for outdoor dining.   The ultimate design of the project was of particular interest to Council District 12 and to the Northridge Vision 2025 group. It was important that a project of this scale be a positive addition to the street, by not overwhelming the block and by providi

On a Sunday morning in late October a group of Northridge neighbors, academics and local office holders presented at the 2016 California Conference of the American Planning Association, held in Pasadena at the Pasadena Conference Center, on the unique collaboration among disparate groups that has led to the first of the Los Angeles Great Streets, Reseda Blvd in Northridge. Represented by three Urban Studies and Planning faculty, Zeynep Toker, Craig Olwert and Allessandro Rigolon, who submitted the Northridge Great Street experience to the list of conference panel discussions for 2106, the panel posed the following question, “how could the success of the Reseda Great Street be duplicated in other parts of the city, both urban and suburban?” Underlining the question is a unique collaboration among diverse stakeholders which has created the ingredients leading to Reseda Boulevard's designation as one of Los Angeles' Great Streets, the first Great Street, and which has subs