Environmental Impact Disclosed in Soka Report

Expanding Soka University’s scenic Calabasas campus into a 3,400-student liberal arts college would create several hundred jobs but also increase traffic, kill oak trees and threaten wildlife habitat, according to an environmental impact report released last week.

But the long-anticipated 16-volume report--required as part of Soka’s effort to expand its campus at Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway--concludes that most environmental damage caused by the 25-year project could be mitigated or avoided.

The question is whether all of this is a moot exercise.

Soka proposes construction of 1.4 million square feet of academic, residential and recreational facilities. Structures--built in five phases between now and 2015--would occupy 117 of the site’s 580 acres, with the rest set aside as public open space.

The EIR was prepared for Soka by private consulting firms and reviewed by county planners.

“This EIR demonstrates our intent to do some expansion on this campus,” said Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan. “After four years of overtures, we are going to see the symphony through to the end.”

But whether Soka’s controversial symphony ends in a crescendo remains to be seen. Although the school proposes expanding to 3,400 students in the EIR, Ourvan has said the school is willing to reduce the size considerably to address the concerns of opponents.

Last week, Soka announced plans to develop a second campus in the Orange County community of Aliso Viejo, where political leaders and homeowner groups welcomed the school.

Further complicating the situation is an eminent domain lawsuit filed by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to condemn part of the campus for parkland. The conservancy already has won the right to take 245 acres, and a jury will decide later this year how much Soka should be paid.

If the conservancy can meet the price--probably between $20 million and $30 million--Soka’s plans in Calabasas could be scuttled.

With so much uncertainty, opponents of the school are wary of lending too much credence to the EIR, which will be the subject of a public hearing before the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on April 26.

Les Hardie, a past president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, said the group will ask county planners to withdraw the report and delay hearings until the plans for the site are less uncertain.

“We want to know what it is they really want to do before we spend all our time and energy and money commenting on an EIR that probably is no longer applicable,” Hardie said.

Hardie and others also took issue with the conclusions of the EIR that most adverse effects of the project could be offset. By their very nature, environmental impact reports deal with quantifiable subjects such as traffic, waste-water generation and habitat destruction.

Rarely are they able to address less tangible issues such as whether the expansion would ruin the feel of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Briefly, the report says:

* Traffic would increase by 3,070 trips per day, which at the project’s completion would represent about 2% of the total vehicle volume in the area. Significant congestion would occur at 14 nearby intersections, mostly along Las Virgenes Road near the Ventura Freeway.

* Roughly 100,000 cubic yards of earth would be graded to accommodate construction. Almost all of the grading would be done on areas that have been plowed in the past. By comparison, construction of the nearby Ahmanson Ranch housing development would require about 30 million cubic yards of grading.

* About 60 oak trees would be removed and the root systems of 291 others would be encroached upon. More than three acres of oak woodland and more than an acre of oak savanna would be either destroyed or disturbed.

* Wildlife that passes through the area while traveling between Topanga and Malibu Creek state parks might be disturbed. Although designated wildlife corridors would remain intact, the report concludes that the presence of people might frighten the animals.

* More people at the university would place greater demands on fire and police services as well as the already overburdened Las Virgenes Unified School District. Costs for extra officers or teachers would be significant, but could be offset through development fees or other assessments.

In addition to Soka’s main proposal, the report includes a number of alternatives, from moving the campus to the Ahmanson Ranch development to reducing the number of students.

Ourvan said the Aliso Viejo alternative was not listed among the alternatives because it was only recently considered for development, and then only to complement the Calabasas campus.

“We still intend to do something up here,” Ourvan said.

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Soka Expansion

Soka University proposes to expand its 200-student language school at Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway into a 3,400-student liberal arts college and prep school. The school wants to build 1.4 million square feet of educational, residential and recreational facilities. According to an environmental impact report released Thursday, that sort of development would increase traffic, kill oak trees and threaten wildlife habitat, but also would create several hundred jobs.