CALABASAS : Court to Reconsider its Decision on Soka

The curious fight over Soka University’s scenic Calabasas campus took another unexpected turn Thursday as a state appeals court agreed to reconsider a key decision in the case.

Without comment, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said it will look again at a ruling it made last month that cleared the way for a state parks agency to proceed with attempts to seize the campus for use as parkland.

That decision--issued Feb. 15--is now void.

Lawyers for both Soka and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy were uncertain why the court decided to review its decision or whether it means justices will be willing to consider new arguments by either side.

“Nobody knows what they have in mind right now,” said Soka attorney Hodge Dolle. “It could be that they change a paragraph or a punctuation mark in the original opinion. Or they could bite the bullet and rule on the merits.”

The essence of the court’s February ruling was that Soka should raise its objections to the conservancy’s attempts to seize its land during eminent domain proceedings in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Soka had argued that the conservancy did not have proper authorization to launch the condemnation action and therefore there should be no eminent domain proceedings.

A Ventura County Superior Court judge agreed with Soka attorneys, but she was overturned after the conservancy appealed.

Thursday’s surprise is but the latest twist in a tortuous fight between the school and some of its neighbors. Soka wants to expand its campus at the corner of Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road into a liberal arts college, but state and federal parks officials want a large chunk of the land to be used for a visitors center for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.