Japanese College to Buy Land in Aliso Viejo : Education: Soka University says it is acquiring 100 acres. It has been stymied in efforts to expand its facilities near Calabasas.

A Japanese university embroiled in a bitter expansion battle in the Santa Monica Mountains is now looking at Aliso Viejo for a future campus site.

Soka University announced Tuesday that it is purchasing 100 acres in a southwest corner of this unincorporated community for what would be the first private college in southern Orange County.

Classes could begin with 300 students in 1999 if escrow closes this spring, said Wendy Wetzel Harder, spokeswoman for the Mission Viejo Co., owner and developer of 6,600-acre, master-planned Aliso Viejo. She would not reveal the purchase price of the property.

“This will be a tremendous asset to the community,” Harder said. “A future college has always been part of our hopes for Aliso Viejo . . . and Soka University has an outstanding reputation in Pacific Rim studies.”

Under Soka’s 25-year plan, the school would ultimately have an enrollment of 2,500 students, include a library and a performing arts center and provide 400 permanent jobs to the community, Harder said.

The Mission Viejo Co. actively sought out Soka, which Harder compared to Chapman University in Orange because it emphasizes Pacific Rim studies, and “would be a nice match to businesses coming into our Pacific Park business complex” about a mile away from the future campus. The 900-acre business complex is considered the centerpiece of Aliso Viejo, she said.

Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan said the Aliso Viejo site “seems like a good niche for us. In terms of student recruitment and a geographic area, this will be a great place.”

Although Soka University has owned 660 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains near upscale Calabasas since 1986, it has been rebuffed for two years in efforts to expand its 300-student language school into a 3,400-student liberal arts college.

The pastoral campus property in Calabasas, which includes the historic mansion of razor magnate King Gillette, has long been coveted by public parks officials who want to use the land as a visitors center for the adjacent Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Most recently, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy won the right to condemn the college-owned property through eminent domain and a jury later this year is expected to decide how much the school should be paid for the land.

Ourvan said that even if Soka wins its legal battle in Calabasas, it still intends to go through with college development plans in Aliso Viejo. He would not say how much the project would cost.

“This will allow us to get on with the business of being a school,” he said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky called the announcement “a major turning point in the Soka saga. I think it means, when you play it all out, that Soka has cast its line in Orange County.” He has been an outspoken foe of expanding the college at its current site.

In contrast to the hostile response Soka received from residents in Calabasas, the school’s proposal has been welcomed in Orange County, where it would get a chance to grow up with the young Aliso Viejo community. Aliso Viejo, with a current population of about 22,000 people, is expected to reach 48,000 by 2005, Harder said.

“We’re delighted to welcome Soka University to Aliso Viejo,” said Bob Fisher, president of the Aliso Viejo Community Assn. “We’re looking forward to the exciting educational opportunities Soka will offer our residents and the fine recreational and cultural facilities that the university will provide for its students.”

The 24-year-old university, which is partially funded by the Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect, also has won the blessing of 5th District Supervisor Marian Bergeson.

“I feel that the location you have selected will be a fine place for an independent university,” Bergeson said in a letter to the Soka administration. “Soka University will be an important addition to the residents and businesses in the county of Orange.”

The campus site is about four miles from the ocean and will overlook Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park to the west and south and will have a residential development to the east, Harder said.

“It’s an absolutely beautiful site, on a highland area with views of the park’s canyons,” Harder said.

Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss contributed to this report.