Conservancy Votes to Seize Soka Expansion Property

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy voted Monday night to attempt to use condemnation proceedings--for the first time--to seize 244 acres of prime property near Calabasas owned by Soka University.

The 14-year-old conservancy, a state agency formed to amass and protect parkland in the mountains around Los Angeles, voted 6 to 1 to seek permission from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to begin eminent domain proceedings against the university property. But the conservancy board members were far from enthusiastic about their action.

“This power is constitutional. It is not immoral, as some have said,” William Rothbard, vice chairman of the conservancy board, said. “We are using this power reluctantly. . . . I believe I speak for everyone on the board when I would say we would prefer not to use this power.”

Soka has refused to sell the land, saying it wants to expand the campus from a 175-student language school to a high school and college enrolling 3,400 students.

The Ventura County supervisors’ approval is needed because the conservancy is part of a joint powers agency that includes two Ventura County park districts. The supervisors were scheduled to hear the request this morning.

Representatives of Soka, a Tokyo-based school linked with a controversial religious sect, were angered, though not surprised, by the vote. They said they hope that the Ventura supervisors will reject the conservancy’s request.

“I think Ventura’s going to be giving a lot of thought as to whether they want to be the enabling body on this action,” said Soka attorney Hodge Dolle. “I have talked to some of them and they were very concerned about it. They feel they were broadsided.”

Dolle said the school believes that the conservancy must also get a go-ahead from the state Board of Public Works, which must give final approval to most condemnation actions by state agencies. Conservancy officials maintain that they can operate independently of that board if they take action through their joint powers agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

The conservancy has long wanted to buy the land for the federal government for use as the headquarters of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. It made an offer of $18.7 million for the land at the end of October.

Soka bought the meadow property at Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road in 1986 for about $17.7 million. Since then, school officials say, they have spent another $10 million fixing up the historic buildings and landscaping the property. They also have purchased more than 250 surrounding acres.

Earlier this year, the school filed an application with Los Angeles County seeking permission to expand from a small English- and Japanese-language program into a full-fledged high school and liberal arts college. That application required a complete environmental impact report, which is not finished.

The expensive acquisitions and expansion announcements sent tremors through the ranks of homeowners and environmentalists, who feared that a large campus would change the scenic area. Other critics include groups such as the Cult Awareness Network, which consider the school’s affiliate religion--the Soka Gakkai--to be dangerous.

Faced with such two-pronged opposition, school representatives tried to minimize their connection to the Soka Gakkai and maximize their interaction with any groups that would agree to give them a forum.

If the Ventura County supervisors approve the conservancy’s request, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority must hold one more public hearing after giving Soka 15 days notice of its intent to take the land. If Soka does not agree to sell at that time, the authority would begin the legal battle by filing suit against Soka.