Soka University Expansion Wins Panel’s Backing

The California Coastal Commission handed a tentative victory to Soka University on Thursday, apparently signaling an end to the school’s eight-year battle to expand its campus in an oak-filled valley in the Santa Monica Mountains.

By a unanimous vote that belied the day’s polemics, the commission approved the first of two measures Soka needs to expand its enrollment from 350 to 800 students per day. A vote on the second issue was postponed until March.

But with several commissioners indicating they support the expansion plan, Soka backers said the project was all but certain to win approval.

Opponents glumly agreed.

“It’s a loss, it’s a loss,” said Dave Brown, a Calabasas planning commissioner and longtime foe of the project at Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Drive. “It’ll remain to be seen whether this is the beginning of the end of the Las Virgenes Valley. The foot is in the door.”

Thursday’s vote at the commission’s hearing in San Diego set the stage for the end of the long-running regulatory battle over one of the last undeveloped valleys in the Santa Monicas. The contentious struggle has split onetime friends, divided state park officials and fostered a lingering suspicion between neighbors and the university, which offers language and Pacific Rim study classes.

Still, the prospect that the feud would move into the courts loomed: Representatives of both the Sierra Club and the city of Calabasas said Thursday they were looking into a lawsuit against the school, should the commission grant final approval next month.

“The Sierra Club is willing to do whatever it takes to protect this spectacular property,” said Mark Massara, head of the California Coastal Program.

After hours of testimony, commissioners voted to approve several changes to the guidelines that govern how land on the property is put to use. Specifically, the commission voted to:

* Expand the area in which the commission will allow Soka to build, from 31 to 52 acres, a 67% jump. Soka plans to increase its building footage five-fold from the present 81,000 square feet to 440,000 square feet.

* Prohibit development in a 100-foot buffer around environmentally sensitive areas and in a zone around more than 4,000 oaks that dot the 588-acre site.

* Set aside 456 acres of open space, including 383 acres of parkland that will be turned over to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy once Soka gets final approval of its plans.

Thursday’s action granted the school a land-use change for the site. That allows the school to petition the commission for a formal building permit, the issue to be taken up at the commission’s meeting March 10-13 in Monterey.

Coastal commissioners, who listened to two full days of testimony on the project, including one day at a hearing in November in Agoura Hills, said they postponed voting on Soka’s permit application because they wanted to make sure that Soka and the commission’s staff understood all the ramifications of the land-use vote.

“Whatever decision is made, we’ll be stuck with it a long time,” said Rusty Areias, commission chairman. “We have to make sure we’re happy with our decision.”

And Joseph T. Edmiston, head of the mountains conservancy, said the public was one step closer to still more parkland in the Santa Monicas.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Edmiston, who helped negotiate an out-of-court settlement with Soka in 1994. In return for the conservancy’s support and an end to a condemnation lawsuit, school officials agreed to limit their expansion plans and donate 382 acres of parkland.

Both supporters and opponents chartered buses to attend the hearing, packing the standing-room-only meeting room at a San Diego hotel with more than 300 spectators. Soka supporters--including alumni, students and community members--wore green and white buttons that said “Yes on Soka.”

Local homeowner groups and environmentalists opposing the university were outnumbered by about 2 to 1, though they armed themselves with a homemade videotape, two slide shows and their own architectural plans for what they think the school should do.

And both sides brought out their big guns.

Soka University featured a letter of support from Rosa Parks, the civil rights heroine and an occasional lecturer at the school.

Opponents included Martin Litton, well-known environmentalist, and society figure Patricia Bell Hearst, past president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns.

Arguments against the plan ranged from aesthetic to ecological. Opponents feared that an increase in traffic would impede beach access. They also worried that the buildings would be an eyesore to hikers in the park or those driving along scenic Mulholland Drive.

Among their biggest concerns, though, are the university’s long-term intentions. Several neighbors said the 440,000 square feet of building space was far too large for a school of 800 students. Instead, they suggested school officials intend to make the site a fund-raising center for the university, which receives funding from Soka Gakkai, a controversial Japan-based Buddhist sect.

Ourvan denied such plans, though he declined to give details on what sort of educational institutions would exist on the campus. Future plans could include a college preparatory high school or other specialized language programs. Soka recently broke ground on building a full, four-year liberal arts college in Aliso Viejo in Orange County.

“We’ll get started planning in the next few months,” Ourvan said.