Soka Expansion Foes Call Board Vote a Victory

Opponents of the controversial Soka University in the Santa Monica Mountains claimed a small victory Tuesday after the Board of Supervisors tried to resolve a sticky legal issue left over from their approval of the project two years ago.

Opponents said the move will only further complicate the legal tangle surrounding the school’s proposed expansion in the Las Virgenes Valley.

“They fixed it in the wrong way,” said Frank Angel, an attorney representing those opposed to the university. “It’s heavy-handed interference with the judicial process.”

The problems began shortly after the state’s Coastal Commission in April approved the 8-year-old project, which will increase the size of the student body from 350 to 800 students.

As part of the approval, the commission asked the county to make several changes to the campus expansion plans it had earlier approved for the valley just east of Malibu Creek State Park. The county, however, failed to make those changes--including limiting additional expansions in the future--within the timeline set by the commission.

As a result, supervisors Tuesday simply removed any requirement for the commission to approve changes to the plan--a move opponents said amounted to an ex post facto change in the approval process for the project, which is the subject of two separate lawsuits.

The county counsel’s office, however, called the change minor and said it would withstand legal challenge. County officials also said the Coastal Commission’s decision to grant the university a permit didn’t conflict with the county’s plan.

“We’re not changing the physical project at all. This is just a paper change,” said Richard Weiss, principal deputy county counsel.

In contrast, the staff of the Coastal Commission has suggested that the commission had no duty to follow the county’s plan in the first place, questioning the legal force of the plan, which has been used in determining land use decisions since its passage in 1986.

For now, the supervisors’ vote would have no effect on the Coastal Commission’s issuance of the expansion’s construction permit, which could be granted later this year, said Barbara Carey, the commission planner overseeing the project.

Barring any delays stemming from the lawsuits, construction could begin this year, Soka University officials said. Soka officials said they are working to satisfy a number of requirements imposed on the project, such as protection of oak trees and river habitat, before proceeding with construction.

The most serious concern about the board’s decision to ignore the changes suggested by the commission is that it could open the door to further development at the university, opponents said. School officials said there are no plans for more expansion.

“The intent always has been so that Soka would develop more on this property,” said Dave Brown, a Calabasas planning commissioner and project opponent. “That valley is too great a treasure for that to happen.”