Board Rejects Bid to Sway Park Deals : Land: The county supervisors’ stand on acquisition policy is seen by some as a blow to expansion of Soka University.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors turned down an attempt Tuesday to influence federal parkland purchases in the Santa Monica Mountains, which opponents said could have crippled a drive by the National Park Service to acquire a Calabasas meadow owned by a Japanese university.

Supervisor Deane Dana had suggested that the board ask federal legislators to force the Park Service to spend its money on land owned by willing sellers.

That would exclude purchase of the 580 acres of land near Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road, because representatives of Tokyo-based Soka University have indicated they will not sell. The school wants to expand from 100 to 4,400 students, which would require a county zoning change. The Park Service wants about half of the land for the headquarters of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The final vote Tuesday was 3 to 1 against Dana’s proposal.

Park representatives and environmentalists who oppose the school’s plans characterized the supervisors’ vote as a significant blow to Soka’s expansion proposal. Joseph T. Edmiston, director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said it was a “straw vote” on Soka, indicating how the board may split when the project comes before it in a year or two.

“These are trial jousts over the ultimate battle . . . it’s encouraging,” said Dave Brown, chairman of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force of the Sierra Club.

Edmiston, Brown and others said they suspected Soka was behind Dana’s proposal and a similar effort to outlaw land condemnation in the Santa Monicas that was overturned last week in the U.S. Senate.

Soka University representatives could not be reached for comment.

Dana, however, insisted that his motion had “absolutely nothing to do with Soka” and was motivated instead by a desire to treat other mountain property owners fairly, especially if their properties had been languishing on the National Park Service’s wish list.

“I think it’s an outrage,” Dana said after Tryon Sisson, director of the Zuma Canyon Landowners Assn., testified that about 15 owners of smaller parcels wait year after year to sell their land while federal money is diverted to large purchases.

“I don’t care if Soka is condemned or not. . . . I don’t even know them,” Sisson said after the vote. “It’s just that every year somebody’s going to determine that something is threatened . . . while we remain in limbo.”

When asked later about Sisson’s allegations, the superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area scoffed.

“Up until six months ago, 90% of these supposedly willing sellers were not willing sellers. We had been asking for years and years and years to appraise their property,” Supt. David Gackenbach said. “Now that times are tight and we’re the only ones with money, they are begging us to appraise it.”

Gackenbach said that the Park Service had purchased 65 small parcels in the past three years and that many of the landowners, including Sisson, are involved in active negotiations to buy their land. He said that even if dreams of buying the Soka property become reality, the $7.5 million now included in a federal appropriations bill will not necessarily go toward that purchase.

Tuesday’s vote featured an about-face by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. Initially, Hahn sided with Dana, saying that the Park Service’s inaction on buying land owned by willing sellers was “bureaucracy at its worst.”

Supervisor Ed Edelman, who took over representation of the mountain region from Dana after last year’s court-ordered redistricting, implored Hahn to change his mind, saying he was letting pity get in the way of good public policy.

“It’s a ploy to use up the money for willing sellers and not have enough for Soka,” Edelman said. “We ought not to get involved in this.”

When the roll call for the vote was taken, Hahn hesitated while Edelman mouthed, “No! No!” But Hahn instead voted yes with Dana, while Edelman was joined in opposition by Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Seconds later, Hahn’s aides huddled with Edelman’s aides, explaining that the supervisor had gotten flustered and made a mistake. At the end of the board meeting, Edelman called for a second vote and Hahn voted no, ensuring the proposal’s failure even if it were to be reconsidered by board Chairman Mike Antonovich, who was absent Tuesday.