Judge Backs Review Board for Projects in Coastal Region : Development: Environmentalists hail the ruling on Malibu-area case. A battle over Bob Hope’s land prompted the suit.

In a decision environmentalists hail as an important victory, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge upheld a lawsuit demanding that the County Board of Supervisors set up a review board for developments in environmentally fragile areas in the Malibu coastal region.

The ruling creates another layer of review for projects within the five-mile-wide state coastal zone, including Soka University’s plans for a major expansion of its Calabasas campus.

The lawsuit was filed by the Sierra Club and the Corral Canyon Homeowners Assn. two years ago, as part of their battle against a proposal to develop 339 acres of entertainer Bob Hope’s land in Corral Canyon as a private resort and residential area.

Developer Sun Pacific Properties received approval from Los Angeles County supervisors in 1989 for the canyon project, which would have included an 18-hole golf course, a 52,000-square-foot clubhouse, 60 homes, six tennis courts, two restaurants and a swimming pool.

The California Coastal Commission a year later rejected a scaled-down version of the development, and the state is attempting to acquire the property for parkland as part of a complicated land swap with Hope.

The lawsuit argued that in approving the project, county supervisors disregarded a 1986 policy adopted by the California Coastal Commission. The policy required the county to set up an Environmental Review Board for projects in environmentally sensitive coastal areas such as oak woods, watersheds and wildlife corridors.

The Board of Supervisors never established the group. In his ruling last Thursday, Judge Ronald M. Sohigian called the county’s approach toward the 1986 policy “arbitrary and capricious.”

Sohigian ordered the county to set up a review board made up of professionals with expertise in resource management to make sure that developments conform to the local coastal program. While the board is advisory only, Sohigian ruled that the county can approve projects “only upon a finding that the project is consistent” with the local coastal plan.

The judge demanded that the county comply with his order within 160 days.

“This is a loud and clear message that our courts will not tolerate inaction regarding coastal plan policies designed to protect fragile environmental resources,” said Frank Angel, the attorney for the Sierra Club.

County officials and environmentalists agree that the ruling means that no future development projects in affected areas can proceed until a review board is assembled.

One project likely to come under the new panel’s review is Soka University’s plan to expand its 580-acre campus near the junction of Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road. Although the property is not on the coast, it is within the coastal zone that extends five miles inland.

The rural site currently hosts about 100 Japanese exchange students, but Soka officials want to turn it into a four-year liberal arts college for more than 4,000 students.

State and federal parks officials want the property for an activity center for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, but Soka officials say they’re unwilling to sell.

The newly incorporated city of Malibu must also run development projects within its borders past the review board, but that will not be a problem, since council members have long fought for the board.

“The county dragged its feet for over four years,” said Councilwoman Missy Zeitsoff. “The county just liked to approve everything that came through. Now they will have to undergo much more scrutiny.”

Ron Hoffman, supervising regional planner for the department of regional planning for the county, said the county had not previously formed a review board because of lack of time and money.

“We didn’t forget it, we just have only so much time and money,” he said.

Hoffman said, however, that the county plans to put together a group to comply as quickly as possible with last week’s ruling. Times staff writer Myron Levin contributed to this story.