Babbitt Supports Acquisition of Soka Land

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said Saturday he supports plans by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to acquire 248 acres owned by Soka University in the Santa Monica Mountains, but stopped short of backing a controversial effort to condemn the land.

Babbitt said now was “the ideal time” for the conservancy to acquire land in the Santa Monicas for a network of trails and parks in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Babbitt toured the mountains Saturday as part of a weeklong visit to Southern California and spoke at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills.

He said he strongly supported a long-range plan by both the conservancy--a state agency empowered to acquire land for parks--and the National Park Service to add thousands of acres to the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area by purchasing not only the Soka land but several other parcels.

That property, which the conservancy is trying to buy for $19 million, is part of the state agency’s long-range plan for the area, Babbitt said.

The battle over the Soka land has been going on for more than two years.

The university, whose current operations are small, owns 580 acres in the Santa Monicas and wants to develop 80 of them into a full-fledged college campus. Affiliated with Soka University of Japan and founded by a Buddhist sect, the university offers classes in English to about 100 Japanese students, foreign language classes to about 100 Americans and operates a public policy research institute.

While Soka officials have said they are willing to donate up to 500 acres for parkland, they have refused to sell the land that they want for the campus--the same property the conservancy wants to buy.

Babbitt, a longtime environmentalist, was brought into the picture when advocates on both sides of the controversy asked him to lend his weight to their cause.

On Saturday morning, Babbitt met with Reps. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), both of whom support the Park Service plan and the condemnation.

According to Beilenson, the three discussed the plan by the conservancy and Park Service for the area.

Outside of Soka, more than 100 university supporters demonstrated despite a late spring rain, waving to Babbitt as he drove past the campus.

Afterward, at Paramount Ranch, Babbitt praised the plan, citing a separate Park Service acquisition Thursday of the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch from comedian Bob Hope as “a wonderful indication of the efforts of a lot of people.”

Beilenson said he hoped Babbitt or someone else from the Department of the Interior would help mediate the dispute between Soka and the conservancy.

Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan said he did not view the Interior secretary’s avowed support of the Park Service plan as a defeat.

“The worst thing he could have said is that he supports the condemnation, and he stopped short of doing so,” Ourvan said.

But both Beilenson and Berman said they see Babbitt as an ally in the attempt to acquire land in the Santa Monicas.

While Babbitt might not come out in active support of condemnation, Berman said, the lawmaker said the secretary has indicated that he probably will not go on record as opposing it either.

And that is significant, Berman said, particularly because a movement is afoot in Washington to prevent the federal government from seizing private lands for parks.

“I’m confident that he will not come out and try to stop condemnation,” Berman said.