Foes Oppose Soka Plan, Not Owners

I was insulted to read that Supervisors Antonovich and Dana regard opposition to Soka’s development as “racist.”

As president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, a communitywide organization leading the fight to persuade Soka to sell to the park services, I can assure you that the grass-roots opposition to Soka’s outlandish development scheme has nothing to do with the Japanese or with Buddhism.

We are opposed to what the present owners of the property want to do with the land, not who the owners are. We would oppose this development even if the property were still owned by the Catholic Church, as it was until the late 1970s, or if it were owned by Methodists, Baptists, Moslems, animists or atheists.

To drive the point home, there is a Hindu temple about a quarter of a mile from Soka. There was, and is, no community opposition to that facility, because it does not disrupt the environment or add to the traffic congestion in the area.

Soka’s project, by contrast, would drop 1.7 million square feet of urban development (equivalent to about 700 homes) into one of the last large parcels of open space in the Santa Mountain Mountains. It is an outrageous concept that totally negates existing zoning and environmental criteria for the region.

Supervisors Antonovich and Dana should stop bad-mouthing opponents of this project, and start paying attention to what they are saying. They might change their minds.

LES HARDIE

Agoura Hills