Assembly Committee Rejects Soka Land Acquisition Bill : Legislation: The proposal would have limited the cost of the parcel. Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman blames the setback on the university’s lobbying.

An Assembly committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected legislation intended to limit the amount of money taxpayers would have to spend to acquire valuable Soka University land in the Calabasas area of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee squashed a measure introduced by Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) on behalf of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation.

Friedman, who represents the Calabasas area, cast the only vote in favor of the proposal, while all eight other committee members voted against it. He blamed the setback on “an intense lobbying campaign” by Soka.

Representatives of the Las Virgenes homeowners group said the proposal was designed to cut between $10 million and $12 million from the cost of the land, which the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that acquires parkland, is trying to seize by condemnation.

The legislation would have narrowed the scope of a 1992 law that applies when public agencies, such as the conservancy, condemn land owned by nonprofit entities, such as Soka. The law requires the state to pay the nonprofit landowner enough money to rebuild in the same area.

The Friedman bill would have inserted a provision limiting the law’s protection, in the case of schools, to those that have state accreditation, which Soka does not.

The fight over the bill is the latest act in a long-running struggle between Soka, local residents, and state and federal park authorities over whether Soka should be allowed to expand its facilities, or whether 248 acres it owns should be turned into a headquarters for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Soka now offers three programs, including English language classes for about 100 Japanese students, foreign language classes for about 100 American students and a research center. Soka, financially supported in part by the Japanese branch of the Soka Gakkai religious group, would like to expand to 3,400 students by 2015.

That expansion has been contested by the conservancy, which is part of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority that is trying to condemn Soka’s property. A Ventura County judge ruled that the agency did not have the authority to proceed, a ruling the agency is appealing.

Conservancy lawyer Liz Cheadle said Friedman’s bill would not have affected her agency’s current condemnation lawsuit against Soka because that action was filed late last year, before the current law went into effect on Jan. 1.

If, however, the conservancy is unsuccessful in its bid to seize the school’s land, Friedman’s bill would have allowed the conservancy to try again, by preventing the land’s price from rising out of reach. Conservancy officials have said in the past that adding another $10 million to the price of Soka’s land would make the cost prohibitive.

Soka officials, who said they have applied for state accreditation, also maintained that Friedman’s measure would not have affected the eminent domain case unless the case were dismissed and then refiled.

Nonetheless, they expressed satisfaction that they successfully persuaded the Assembly Judiciary Committee that it should not intervene in a local planning dispute.

“I think the committee picked up on the fact that it was narrowly focused on Soka without any good policy considerations to support it,” said Soka lawyer Hodge Dolle.

Assemblyman Robert Epple (D-Cerritos), who sits on the committee, said the central issue in the bill was economic, describing the proposal as an effort “to depress the price” of the land.

In contrast, Friedman argued that Soka was attempting “to artificially inflate the value of the property.” He said Soka will spare “no expense to stand in the way of protecting the Santa Monica Mountains.”

Said Dolle: “It’s no secret that there’s a lobbyist here protecting Soka’s rights so they don’t get picked on.”

Soka has spent nearly $165,000 since 1991 to retain several Sacramento lobbying firms to influence state officials in its fight to keep the school’s land from being seized, according to reports filed with the secretary of state’s office. So far this year Soka has spent $31,000 to retain lobbyist E. A. Melendez and another $6,100 for lobbyist Bruce Young, a former Democratic assemblyman from Cerritos.

“We believe strongly that we are doing this to defend ourselves,” Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan said, adding that the conservancy is spending considerable sums on its own lobbying campaign.

“They are spending taxpayer money,” he said. “At least Soka is spending its own money.”

Records filed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority show that last year it paid the lobbying firm of Rose & Kindel $4,999. The authority also recently signed up lobbyist Joe Caves, a former aide to Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), to represent it on state budget issues.

Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss in Sherman Oaks contributed to this story.