The Fresno Chamber of Commerce has stunned Fresno State officials by opposing the Campus Pointe retail project on the east side of the university campus. The opposition of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce has been long-running and vocal, but Fresno State did not expect the Fresno Chamber to jump into the fray. That came on Friday, just days before the California State University Board of Trustees will take up the project in Long Beach.

Here's Russell Clemings' story about Campus Pointe.

There's another twist to this story.The CSU committee that will take up the Campus Pointe project on Tuesday includes Moctesuma Esparza. He is chief executive of Maya Cinemas. That's the theater company which is under contract to run the theaters at Campus Pointe. Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

Posted by Jim Boren at 5:55 PM | Permalink

Given the controversy over the Campus Pointe project at Fresno State, we have editorialized twice for the need to have next week's meeting of the Board of Trustees of the California State University system in Fresno to give proponents and critics a chance to voice their views in person to the board. The meeting will be held in Long Beach. Here's today's editorial on the subject.

I called the CSU headquarters in Long Beach to ask about the possibility of moving the meeting to Fresno. "That's not something we would do," said a public information officer for the system. She went on to explain that meetings are planned a year in advance and it's a very elaborate production. You can't just pick up and move, she said.

Well, then, what about a committee of the trustees holding a hearing on Campus Pointe in Fresno? Nothing like that is on the schedule, she said.

The trustees are scheduled to approve the Campus Pointe environmental impact report at their meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Posted by Jim Boren at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)