Supervisors OK Soka Expansion

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Thursday approved a compromise plan that will allow Soka University to expand its campus in the Santa Monica Mountains, despite concerns from neighbors about the project’s potential impact on the environment, traffic and quality of life.

“We are not happy about it, but [we] believe it is the best solution to a difficult situation,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who brokered the agreement. “This is not an easy decision. It is the right decision.”

A Sierra Club representative, however, vowed to continue a six-year fight against the Japanese university that has been trying to build a liberal arts school in an environmentally sensitive area near Calabasas.

“We will do whatever we can to keep this from taking place,” said Bonnie Sharpe, chairwoman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club.

The 300-student university cannot start expanding until the California Coastal Commission approves elements of the plan in March.

Still, Jeff Ourvan, vice president of university relations for Soka, rejoiced at the board’s unanimous vote.

“It’s been six years for us,” he said. “And the 5-0 vote shows how this plan has become mainstream and much less controversial.”

In an attempt to counter opposition to the university, Yaroslavsky introduced a requirement that Soka reduce the total number of acres it can build on from 150 to about 59.

Other major components of the plan include:

* The campus will eventually have 650 students, 500 of whom will live on campus.

* There will be a total of 440,000 square feet of campus buildings, and the campus portion of the Soka property will occupy about 207 acres of the 589-acre site. The rest will be left as open space.

* Soka is barred from requesting any expansion for 25 years, when construction will be completed, and then must receive approval from the Board of Supervisors and the Coastal Commission.

Though the plan is much smaller than Soka’s original proposal of a 5,000-student university, opponents, many of whom wore yellow “Stop Soka Now” stickers, were not mollified by the scaled-down plan. Many are concerned that Mulholland Highway, Las Virgenes Road and smaller streets will become much busier.

As the board cast its vote, several waved signs that read “Backroom Deal” and “Kangaroo Court.”

Opponents of the plan who spoke at the nearly three-hour meeting included representatives from the city of Calabasas, the Sierra Club, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and the Monte Nido Valley Property Owners. Letters of opposition from state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sheila Kuehl were also read.

Proponents included Joseph Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and members of Friends of Soka University and the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

The dispute over the university expansion reached a head in 1992 when the conservancy filed an eminent domain claim against Soka in an attempt to derail the project.

The logjam was broken earlier this year when the conservancy, Soka and the county reached a compromise on the expansion plan that settled competing lawsuits and other legal action.

As part of the settlement, Soka agreed to seek a smaller campus and the county agreed to expedite the university’s request for expansion.

The settlement, which was negotiated by Yaroslavsky and retiring U.S. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), came under fierce attack at Thursday’s board meeting because neighbors thought that they had been betrayed by the county and the conservancy.

“It seems the settlement was more in collusion than a settlement,” said Sue Nelson, president of Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains Parks and Trails.

But Edmiston said the settlement guaranteed more open space in the mountains than the agency had sought in its lawsuit against Soka. “If the settlement had been before us in 1991, there is no one who would have voted for condemnation,” Edmiston said.