Fight the Preservation Fight

Lawmakers so far continue to resist efforts to develop 580 acres of mountain land between Calabasas and Malibu. The majestic parcel is owned by Soka University, an offshoot of a Tokyo university. It wants to build a 4,400-student college on the site but like any other private landowner near the coast can develop land only with approval of county and state coastal agencies.

Officials of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area see the mountain-ringed meadow as an ideal place for a park visitor center and for trail heads. Since Congress created the recreational area in 1978, state and federal agencies, which jointly manage the park, have stitched together 70,000 acres of wilderness. Soka appears to have little intention of selling, and for awhile it seemed that the school’s powerful lobbyists might persuade Congress and the Legislature to write special rules making public acquisition of the property all but impossible. In July, a U.S. Senate committee approved a provision, tacked onto a Senate spending bill apparently at Soka’s behest, that would have banned park officials from using federal funds to acquire the land through condemnation. At the same time, a state Assembly committee passed a bill that would have changed the basis on which the property of a nonprofit church or school is appraised in such proceedings. The bill was drafted to help a financially strapped Lynwood church rebuild at another site, but Soka’s lobbyists persuaded lawmakers to include the university as well. The bill would have added millions to the cost of Soka’s land.

But recently, lawmakers seem to be shaking Soka’s grip. The full Senate last month dropped the ban on the use of federal funds in condemnation purchases, and the California Assembly member sponsoring the appraisal bill has postponed action on it. Public hearings should begin this month before the county regional planning department on Soka’s request to develop the site. Park officials--and the public--should be watching those proceedings closely.