CALABASAS : Hearing Delayed on Soka Expansion Plan

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission has postponed Wednesday’s public hearing on an environmental report for Soka University’s proposed expansion.

The hearing, which was to have been at Calabasas High School, was postponed indefinitely at Soka’s request.

Calabasas Mayor Dennis Washburn charged that Soka is stalling to learn more about the strategy of opponents of the expansion plan. Washburn added that Soka sent representatives to a special City Council meeting last week that was held to prepare the city for the Wednesday hearing.

Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan denied that Soka is stalling. “That’s ridiculous. It has very little to do with the Calabasas City Council.”

Soka wanted to wait, Ourvan said, until the Orange County Board of Supervisors rules on whether a planned Soka facility in that county should be part of the environmental impact review for the Calabasas campus expansion plans.

The university, Ourvan said, is trying to prevent a situation in which the Regional Planning Commission rules that the two projects don’t have to be included in the same review, only to have the supervisors reverse the decision.

“We want the county to take a formal position before we start a hearing,” he said.

Soka has been embroiled in a battle for the last four years to expand its 300-student campus in Calabasas to accommodate 3,400 students. Many Calabasas residents oppose the plan, as does the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Soka, meanwhile, has obtained permission from the Orange County Planning Commission to build a 2,500-student liberal arts college in Aliso Viejo. That project reportedly has met with little opposition.