CALABASAS : Soka Rejects State’s Offer to Buy Land
Soka University has formally rejected a state offer to buy its campus in the hills of Calabasas, making it likely that the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority will begin proceedings to seize the land through eminent domain when it meets later this month.
In a Nov. 26 letter, Soka President Hiroshi Okayasu told authority Director Joseph T. Edmiston that the Japanese school has no interest in selling and repeated a longstanding offer to share the lands with parks agencies.
“We cannot understand how you could seriously expect the university to entertain an offer to buy the only area of its property that contains all of the structures and is the only property upon which its academic activities can exist,” Okayasu wrote.
The authority is an arm of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that acquires parkland. Parks officials have long coveted Soka’s campus at Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road as a headquarters and visitors’ center.
Last month, Edmiston offered to buy the land from the school, the first step toward acquiring the land through condemnation.
Soka wants to expand its English-language programs for Japanese students into a full-blown liberal arts college.
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