Soka Offers Park Service Part of Land : Calabasas: The Japanese school says the deal is worth $20 million. But the agency, which also covets the acreage, gives the plan a cool reception.

The Japanese university that hopes to build a 4,400-student liberal arts college in a Calabasas meadow offered Monday to give the National Park Service--which also wants the land--part of its campus and some buildings.

The offer, valued by the school at nearly $20 million, was greeted skeptically by the Park Service, which has long coveted the land as the site of a headquarters for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Administrators of Soka University, who unveiled the offer Monday, said it was aimed at ending the Park Service’s opposition to the expansion plans.

School representatives first suggested such an option in December and followed up Monday with a detailed proposal that they said would be included in the school’s application to county authorities for building permits. The offer included a scaling back from the university’s original plan for 5,000 students to 4,400, and donating 71 acres to the Park Service, primarily along Las Virgenes Road south of Mulholland Highway.

In addition, the university offered to build a $2.5-million park headquarters, set aside a $1-million endowment for park maintenance and donate numerous houses, barns, portable classrooms and offices now standing on the land.

University spokeswoman Bernetta Reade, an account executive with the politically influential public relations firm Cerrell Associates Inc., described the proposal as a “generous gift.”

“This demonstrates the university’s commitment to trying to resolve this,” Reade said. “It could give the parks what they need and give the university the campus it wants, too.”

Regardless of how Park Service officials react to the offer, Reade said it will be included in permit applications, in case the agency changes its mind.

Park officials said Monday they were still reviewing the proposal, but remained skeptical that such a joint use could work. They also questioned whether the university was merely trying to buy their cooperation to prevent them from moving to seize the land through public condemnation.

“It’s a great public relations ploy,” said David Gackenbach, superintendent of the National Recreation Area. “Are they trying to buy us out? I don’t know.”

Asked whether the compromise proposal would influence county review of the university’s permit application, Supervisor Ed Edelman said it does not answer the underlying questions about the development.

“Just because you throw in some green space, that doesn’t mean it’s proper planning,” Edelman said. “The problem still remains as to whether this property can take a major university, the size they’re talking about.”

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said the university had “made a virtue out of a necessity” because, he said, the county would never have approved campus buildings along Las Virgenes Road because of traffic problems. The conservancy is a state agency that acquires land for the National Recreation Area.

“Besides, this doesn’t solve the problem of putting an incompatible use in the heart of the mountains,” Edmiston said. “This gives you the impacts of the university and the impacts of the headquarters.”

Gackenbach and Edmiston both said that the land may not be usable even for a park headquarters because of a Chumash Indian archeological site thought to be located there. Soka spokeswoman Reade said archeological studies will be part of the environmental review of the project required by the county.

The parks representatives also disputed the estimated value of the proposed gift, saying it was inflated, in part because the university paid more for the property than it was worth. The Park Service is still working on its own valuation of the land, they said. The park agencies have set aside $16 million to acquire the site and last week asked Congress for at least $14 million more.

Soka University of Los Angeles, a division of a Tokyo-based college, owns nearly 600 acres in and around the meadow that the school began buying in April, 1986. In all, the county tax assessor’s records indicate the university paid at least $43 million for the property.

Currently, about 100 students from the Tokyo campus study English at the site. On March 1, county zoning inspectors informed the campus that even that limited use violated its permit, which allows only religious instruction. Campus officials disputed that interpretation, but a zoning official said Monday that further legal action against the university is expected soon to enforce the restriction.

While university officials have been talking about sharing the site, the parks agencies have been trying to persuade them instead to give up the meadow in exchange for one of three alternative sites. All three are currently owned by private parties. Parks representatives declined to identify the sites further until the university officially accepts or rejects them.

So far, Reade said, university administrators believe that two of the three sites are too small for their purposes and the third has not yet been visited. But, she said, the joint use proposal indicates that the university would prefer to stay put.

SOKA UNIVERSITY PROPOSAL Land Gift--Dedicate to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 71 acres of university property, primarily a strip along Las Virgenes Road south of Mulholland Highway, estimated by the university to be worth $12 million.

Park Buildings--Construct a 15,000-square-foot park headquarters and visitors center with parking near the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway. Estimated cost: $2.5 million.

Fewer Students--Reduce proposed student population at the university from 5,000 to 4,400 students to make room for the proposed park structures.

Existing Buildings--Rehabilitate and dedicate to the park agency five houses, portable classrooms and office space, three barns, public restrooms, a swimming pool and basketball courts, together valued at nearly $1.4 million.

Maintenance Fund--Create a $1-million endowment, the interest from which would be available to the National Park Service for maintenance of the National Recreation Area.

Buffer Zone--Set aside 394 acres of open space on the university grounds to serve as buffer between the park and the campus.