Pepperdine Faces Tough Test on Growth

Pepperdine University’s latest plan to expand its Malibu campus, which the school says is necessary for it to ascend to the top ranks of private liberal arts colleges, is in trouble.

Citing “numerous environmental concerns,” the California Coastal Commission staff has recommended denial of the school’s long-range development plan, which would allow Pepperdine to double its student enrollment and triple the size of its seaside campus by 1997.

The university, nestled in the hills between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains, is seeking approval for up to 2.1 million square feet of new campus facilities to house 5,000 full-time students by the end of the century.

The plan, which will be the subject of a hearing before the full Coastal Commission on Friday, calls for 1 million square feet of student and faculty housing and other buildings on the 225-acre developed part of the 830-acre campus. It also would add 1 million square feet of buildings on 72 acres of undeveloped property along the western side of the campus.

Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ and has strong ties to the Republican Party, opened its Malibu campus 16 years ago on what is regarded as one of the nation’s most beautiful campus sites. The new long-range plan is Pepperdine’s latest attempt to expand into open hillside property the college owns, an effort many residents and politicians believe would spoil the area’s spectacular natural beauty.

Aggressive Plan

Michael Adams, Pepperdine’s vice president for university affairs, said the school probably would not need all of the expansion it is asking for. He said, however, that Pepperdine wants an aggressive long-range plan that “wouldn’t constrain our successors.”

Pepperdine officials said they will argue with the Coastal Commission staff in hopes of persuading it to change its recommendations. The commission, which rejected an earlier Pepperdine expansion plan, is expected to go along with its staff recommendations unless the college significantly alters its proposal.

Adams did not say whether the university would pursue its expansion on a project-by-project basis, which it can do if the commission rejects the overall proposal.

In asking the commission to deny the development plan, the staff gave approval of a separate request to expand the campus by about 200,000 square feet, including the construction of a 50,000-square-foot humanities and visual arts center. The staff said, however, that approval of that expansion should be approved only if Pepperdine agrees to dedicate about 150 acres of open space, allow public access to two mountain trails and contribute to several traffic improvements on Pacific Coast Highway and connecting streets.

Commission staff analysts also said that any future expansion in the developed area of the campus would require approval by Los Angeles County of a permanent sewer system in Malibu. A $34-million system, recommended by a committee that included Pepperdine representatives, is being studied by the county.

Besides a new humanities building, Adams said, the university needs a new dormitory, an expanded law school library, a new business and management school, a student recreation center and an expanded tennis facility in the next five years. Most of the money for those projects, estimated at $45 million, has already been raised, he said.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been unwilling to change or to compromise,” Adams said. “But we don’t want to sit here in 1988 and preclude something that we might need in 2008. We feel that it’s time to put these matters behind us. We want to get approval and go forward so that we don’t have to spend any more time or money dealing with this.”

Violations Seen

Coastal Commission staff analysts note that the proposed development would require extensive grading, much of it in a scenic coastal area. The staff contends that the plan would violate the state Coastal Act by cutting off a steep ridge in nearby Marie Canyon and would destroy natural vegetation in the area.

The additional students and faculty would generate traffic equivalent to that created by the construction of up to 1,000 single-family homes in the area, according to county planners. Critics of the plan also say the expansion could alter the character of Malibu and accelerate urbanization of the beach community.

“We have serious concerns about the damage to the environment,” said Teresa Henry, the commission’s lead planner for Malibu. “There is more than enough room for them to expand in the developed area of the campus.”

Adams said, however, “We’re not very impressed with the Coastal Commission staff’s understanding of education planning. They’re treating us as a private developer rather than an educational institution. They’re staked out on their view and we’re staked out on ours and we’re just going to have to find a way to reach some accommodation.”

Symbol of Growth

Pepperdine is viewed as a symbol of growth in a community that has fought hard to contain development. Ill will toward the college heightened recently after Pepperdine’s successful lobbying campaign to be excluded from the proposed city of Malibu. The Malibu community is in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County.

Although Pepperdine has provided the community access to its facilities, Malibu leaders say they have been virtually shut out of the university’s growth planning, despite the effect it has on the community.

When Pepperdine ran into difficulty getting approval for an earlier development plan several years ago, it unsuccessfully sought special legislation in Sacramento to exempt it from the coastal permit process. This effort to go around local authorities angered many in the Malibu community.

“When they first moved here from downtown Los Angeles, we were told that the Malibu campus would be a satellite of the college,” said Frank Basso, a member of the Malibu Township Council, the largest civic group in Malibu. “Then they closed the downtown campus and told the community in no uncertain terms that they would remain a certain size.

“Now they just keep growing, with a philosophy that seems to be small is good, but bigger is better. They’ve just never lived up to the promises they’ve made,” Basso said.