Reasonable Medium Should Be Found

* The most perceptive and relevant comment in the May 16 edition of the Los Angeles Times, which offered a potpourri of opinions about Santa Monica Mountains land acquisition, was included in the Valley Editorial. It rightly stated: “It ought to be possible to strike a reasonable medium between future development and environmental interests in order to preserve more vital acreage for the park.” This is the opinion of Soka University as well. Apparently this is not the position of Mr. David Brown.

The credibility of Mr. Brown’s argument in his commentary article is questionable because many of the facts upon which it rests are inaccurate.

He is incorrect in asserting that “under the present county general and local plans, Soka has no entitlement to build an urban university here.” The Los Angeles County General Plan, the Los Angeles County Area Plan and the Local Coastal Plan already designate portions of this campus for institutional use. This designation allows for colleges and universities. The intensity of development is a function of the public review process.

His claim that the university’s expansion will cause a widening of Las Virgenes Road and Malibu Canyon is also erroneous. This false assumption is based on a 2-year-old traffic study issued by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy at a $25,000 expense to the taxpayers which concluded that the road must be widened.

The conservancy based its conclusion on a 5,000-student commuter junior college, which is not the university’s project. The university, rather, is calling for an all residential campus of 3,400 students. Once and for all, the university’s expansion will not require widening of Las Virgenes Road.

Mr. Brown also inflated the university’s proposed expansion by approximately 25%. The university plans to build 41 new buildings and refurbish 20 existing buildings for a total of 1.5 million square feet of space over a 25-year period. There are no parking structures planned.

The university’s expansion preserves 85% of its campus as permanent natural open space, protects 99% of the existing 4,000 campus oaks, repairs a previously damaged riparian habitat, restores native vegetation to the open space areas, grades less than 100,000 cubic yards of earth (compared to 38 million cubic yards for the Ahmanson project), does not impact any endangered species, and protects the integrity of internal wildlife corridors. The point is that a well-intentioned private landholder has the financial resources to maintain open space as well as, if not better than, public agencies.

The university also has repeatedly offered to share the campus with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a concept that local park officials, committed to an all-or-nothing policy of condemnation, have rejected.

Environmental protection is an important priority, but educational opportunities and public fiscal responsibility are at least of equal importance. The university is once again calling for the park officials to join us and work toward a public-private partnership on this site. I believe this is what the Los Angles Times has in mind when it refers to a “reasonable medium.”

JEFF OURVAN

Director of Community Relations

Soka University

Calabasas