Soka University Expansion

Re “Beware of Soka University Bearing Gifts,” Nov. 24.

David Brown implies that by cutting back the number of acres with institutional designation we can prevent Soka University from building its huge original development, but Brown doesn’t tell us how big a cut we need to make. The [Santa Monica Mountains] Conservancy, on whose Citizens

Advisory Committee Brown sits, has advocated that 50 acres of Soka’s requested institutional designation be rejected, but is that enough to constrain the long-term growth inducement the conservancy claims to be protecting us from? Soka is asking for an increase from 31 to 169 acres. Soka is limited for 25 years to 650 students, then can come back for more.

The conservancy should be asking for only 8.4 acres of institutional designation if it means to limit Soka to 650 students. In the settlement, Soka gets to build its 440,000 square feet of building space on 30 acres. At the same student-to-square-foot ratio as Pepperdine University, which is 260 square feet per student, this means 1,692 students can be comfortably accommodated on those 30 acres, more than twice the allowed 650 students. But 650 students only need 169,000 square feet, which by the Pepperdine ratio comes to only 8 1/2 acres.

So why is the conservancy wasting our time asking for only 50 acres less?

The settlement, and the conservancy request for a little reduction in institutional acreage, are both red herrings designed to obscure the real truth that Soka is getting everything it wanted--only in installments with a big balloon at the end. And we’re losing the park, piece by piece, due to this precedent-setting project.

SUSAN GENELIN

Beverly Hills