Pepperdine Expansion Put on Back Burner : Development: The Planning Commission will visit the campus before deciding whether to allow the student housing project.

After complaints from Malibu officials, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday postponed a decision on whether to allow Pepperdine University to build campus housing for 546 students and an annex to Firestone Fieldhouse.

By a 4 to 0 vote, the panel delayed a decision on the matter until June 3, and, at the urging of opponents, agreed to visit the campus themselves next month before considering the university’s plans.

Opponents, long opposed to attempts by the conservative Christian school to expand its facilities, cautiously hailed the action as a victory of sorts.

“It’s significant that (the commission) determined to come out and take a look at what we’re talking about before they make a determination,” said Harry Barovsky, vice president of the Malibu Road Property Owners Assn., which opposes the university’s plans.

Newly elected Councilwoman Joan House, who, along with Mayor Walt Keller, attended the hearing, called the delay encouraging. Andrew K. Benton, the university’s executive vice president, expressed confidence that the project will be approved, adding that neither community opposition nor the commission’s action was “anything out of the ordinary.”

“We know there is a lot of misinformation out there, and once people realize that we’re not trying to expand the size of the university, we don’t believe there will be a serious problem,” Benton said.

Pepperdine wants to build two three-story buildings to house 402 students on a permanent basis, as well as temporary housing for up to 144 students, and new parking to accommodate 268 cars.

It also wants to build a two-story field-house annex that would include classrooms and basketball and volleyball courts, and a separate building for aerobics and weight training.

Under the university’s long-range development plan, approved by the California Coastal Commission in 1989, Pepperdine will be able to build nearly 1.5 million square feet of facilities on an undeveloped 72-acre section of the campus.

The long-range plan would allow the Malibu campus to expand to 5,000 students, about double the 2,550 students enrolled there now.

However, university officials have long insisted that they have no plans to greatly expand enrollment, and on Wednesday they repeated the assertion.

“We could have as many people in our law school, business school and undergraduate programs as we want,” Benton said, “but that’s not what Pepperdine is all about.”

Although merely an incremental step in the long-range development plan that was already approved, the proposal considered Wednesday must win the specific approval of the county and the Coastal Commission before construction may take place.

Opponents argued that county planners did not give adequate consideration to grading, traffic, waste water and other considerations before recommending earlier this month that the latest site-specific project be approved.

Opponents accused the county of accepting the findings of Pepperdine’s environmental consultants at face value without providing an independent analysis of what the university’s proposal.

“We believe the analysis before you today is more a reflection of the (university’s) desire to implement their development plan than your staff’s evaluation . . . based on sound planning principles,” said Bob Benard, Malibu’s city planner.

Among other things, opponents argued that the construction project would increase traffic in the Malibu area.

However, the university disputed that claim.

Pepperdine spokesman Jeff Bliss said that about half the students commute to school each day and, that with more on-campus housing, the “overall impact on commuting traffic through the Malibu Canyon-Las Virgenes corridor will be substantially lessened.”

“Our goal is to bring more of our students back onto campus where they are not only nearer to their classrooms, but the entire Pepperdine community,” Benton said.

Three weeks ago a state appeals court upheld Pepperdine’s right to proceed with its long-range development plan, dismissing claims by two Malibu community groups and the city that the Coastal Commission violated the state’s coastal protection law in approving the plan.

Opponents fear that Pepperdine’s expansion will ultimately transform Malibu into a booming college town.

Relations between Malibu’s leaders and the university have been strained for years. They worsened in 1989 after the university successfully lobbied county officials to exclude the campus from Malibu’s boundaries.

Many in the community were further outraged last year when The Times disclosed that Pepperdine had secretly invested millions of dollars in Malibu real estate in 1989 while trying to block an incorporation effort. Malibu became a city last year.