An O.C. Welcome Mat for Soka : College expansion, stalled in L.A. County, finds acceptance in Aliso Viejo

What a difference less than a hundred miles can make.

Soka University of America has battled for four years to expand its campus in the Los Angeles County community of Calabasas. Neighbors, who generally hated the university’s plan, understandably were concerned that if student population rose from 200 to the proposed 3,400, Calabasas would lose its rustic flavor. Last week, Soka announced the purchase of 100 acres in the unincorporated Orange County community of Aliso Viejo, where officials have issued a warm welcome.

Southern Orange County has boomed in the last two decades as huge housing tracts and strip shopping centers sprouted. The boom, however, has not included many centers of culture or higher education. Soka, an affiliate of a Japanese-based Buddhist sect, will be the first private university with a full campus in southern Orange County. Small wonder that last week’s announcement has been cheered.

A Soka spokesman said the campus eventually will have 2,500 students, graduate and undergraduate, from a number of nations and cultures. That will benefit Orange County, as will the teaching and administrative jobs to be created.

The school’s ambitious plans include a 250,000-volume library specializing in Pacific Rim issues, which the university expects to be a major course of study. A spokeswoman for the Mission Viejo Co., which sought the campus and sold Soka the land, said the school should fit well in an area that has many companies doing international business.

Apparently off to a good beginning in Orange County, Soka now should act to mend its fences in Los Angeles County. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency, won a court fight to acquire some of the school’s property for its headquarters. Still to be decided is the purchase price.

Meanwhile, the school retains that campus and still intends to expand there. Given the opposition at Calabasas, it should drop its plans for growth at the L.A. County site and concentrate on its fresh start in Orange County.