Sport Chalet

Sport Chalet to Add Irvine Store: Sport Chalet Inc. will add a new store in Irvine in the fall of 1995. The company also said it would relocate its La Mesa store to El Cajon. The Irvine store will have 35,000 square feet of retail space. Sport Chalet's other Orange County store is in Huntington Beach.

It hosts an annual midsummer mushroom parade, with participants dressed as their favorite fungi; it's the site of a yearly gin festival, featuring martini-stirring and lime-squeezing seminars; it is one of America's fly-fishing capitals, and mounts an elite film festival every September. It also boasts 1,050 acres of uncrowded downhill ski slopes, 10 chairlifts feeding 43 of its 65 trails and near-perfect winter conditions--with an average annual snowfall of 300 inches.

Two years after winning an emotionally and politically charged battle to build the first major shopping center in La Canada Flintridge, the Sport Chalet is seeking a second delay because of the poor economy. The retail sporting goods chain will ask the La Canada Flintridge City Council on July 6 for another one-year extension of a conditional-use permit to build a $25-million shopping center at Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway, a company official said this week.

The Sport Chalet may abandon plans to build the first major shopping center in La Canada Flintridge and intends to open a new outlet in Burbank, a company official said Tuesday. The La Canada Flintridge-based company, a sporting goods retail chain, has signed a letter of intent to lease space in the newly opened Burbank Media City Center shopping mall, said Robert Haueter, vice president of marketing.

Adverse economic conditions have forced a delay in development of the proposed Sport Chalet shopping village in La Canada Flintridge for up to a year, a company official said this week. "This is not exactly the best time to go out and lease space," said Robert Haueter, vice president of marketing for the sporting goods chain. However, he said the company "expects the recession to bottom out soon. Things are starting to improve already."

With a hint of fanfare mixed with relief, the La Canada Flintridge City Council gave final approval Monday to the Sport Chalet to build the largest shopping village in the sleepy mountainside community. The action ended a six-year quest by owners of the successful sporting goods chain to replace a conglomerate of aged storefronts that have served as its founding headquarters for more than 30 years.

A decision on a controversial proposal by the Sport Chalet to build a major shopping center in La Canada Flintridge is unlikely before early July, city officials said this week. Some observers had predicted that a newly constituted pro-development City Council would quickly approve plans by the Sport Chalet to build a $25-million commercial village at the city's key intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway.

Both sides are weary and frustrated going into the final phase of the long debate over a controversial proposal by the Sport Chalet to build the first major retail complex and shopping center in La Canada Flintridge.

As I stood at City Hall on April 10 watching the election returns come in, I was struck by two things: First, an election really can be bought. Sport Chalet bought and paid for this victory. Their organization was well run and well funded, solely for the destruction of three candidates who didn't totally agree with their plan for the Sport Chalet. The blatant arrogance and sinister smear tactics I witnessed in this campaign were truly frightening. Second, good does not always conquer evil.