CALABASAS : Court Rejects Soka’s Bid for Separate Trial

Making only minor changes to an earlier ruling, a state appeals court on Thursday affirmed that Soka University should fight the condemnation of its Calabasas campus in Los Angeles County courts.

The 11-page opinion by the 2nd District Court of Appeal amended a Feb. 15 decision, in which the three-judge panel reached essentially the same conclusion.

Thursday’s revised ruling was done to clarify legal points raised by Soka, which is locked in a bitter fight with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy over its campus at the corner of Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway.

Conservancy officials want to condemn 245 acres of the campus to use as a visitors center for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The Japanese language school wants to expand into a liberal arts college.

After trying unsuccessfully to buy Soka’s property, the conservancy in late 1992 launched eminent domain proceedings--the process by which a public agency can force a private property owner to sell.

Soka lawyers claimed the conservancy did not follow proper procedure when it began the process and sued to halt the action in court. Early last year, a Ventura County judge agreed with Soka and ruled that the conservancy had erred.

But justices deciding a conservancy appeal ruled that Soka should raise its objections to the conservancy’s actions in eminent domain proceedings in Los Angeles County--not in a series of separate trials.

Responding to Thursday’s ruling, Soka administrators vowed to press their concerns before the California Supreme Court later this spring, an action that probably would cause further delays in the case.

“We continue to be very sanguine about the whole thing,” said Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan. “It’s like watching grass grow--it takes a long time.”