Panel Notes Concerns Over Soka Expansion

In anticipation of a Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission hearing on the amended Soka University expansion proposal--significantly scaled back from the original--the Calabasas Planning Commission identified some ways the revised plan would impact the community.

Calabasas commissioners said the concerns will be investigated and included in the city’s comment on the proposal’s environmental impact report being prepared for the Sept. 11 hearing.

“The county has to tell us how this is going to affect us in the long run,” Calabasas Commissioner David Brown said Friday.

One of the main concerns, he said, is the campus’ long-range plan. Even though the university has agreed to refrain from asking for another campus expansion for 25 years, Brown wants to know if Soka plans to build again after that period.

The original plan for the site called for three different uses of the land: institutional, low-intensity recreational and rural residential. Brown said he was concerned about the future use of the land designated for institutional use, which was increased in the new plan from 34 to 169 acres.

“The decision to put a certain plan designation on an area is like a seed planted,” Brown said. “It may not sprout and turn into a weed until 20 years down the road.”

But Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan said the university does not intend to expand the campus further. “Nobody can predict what will happen in 25 years,” he said, “but I can say that the university has no plans to go through this again.”

Also, Ourvan said, the increase in the institutional designation comes with an elimination of the residential planning and commercial designation, which would avoid the feared impacts.

The current California Coastal Commission plan for the area would allow not only institutional use but also an RV park and about 130 homes. But, Ourvan pointed out, “under the [new] agreement, the cumulative impact of the project is less than what is called for in the coastal allowance.”