The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will meet with the university about purchasing its Malibu Canyon property. A Soka official said the university is willing to talk, but would not say it was necessarily a willing seller.
By P.G. O’Malley
Special to The Malibu Times
In a move that sent ripples of anticipation through the local environmental community, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky requested the Malibu-based Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy open negotiations with Soka University about purchasing the property the Tokyo-based university owns in Malibu Canyon. Soka spokesperson Wendy Wetzel Harder said the university is willing to talk, but added that it is not necessarily a willing seller.
“It’s certainly safe to say we’re excited that Soka has signaled it’s willing to talk,” SMMC Deputy Director Rori Skei said. “But the fact the university might be a willing seller doesn’t commit it to sell the property to a public agency.”
The Soka property is located at the southeast corner of Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway, just north of Malibu Creek State Park, and has long been sought by public park advocates. The 600 acres are located in the center of the Santa Monica Mountains. Aside from valuable natural, archeological and cultural resources, the property is part of one of the two remaining corridors that bring wildlife to and from the mountains.
The National Park Service had originally eyed the property for its headquarters, and in its recently issued 20-year plan identified the location as prime for a visitor or interpretation center. The NPS attempted to purchase the property in 1982. The California Department of Parks and Recreation also looked into buying the property as early as 1976.
In 1992, the SMCC initiated a condemnation suit against Soka, which at that time had plans for a 3,500-student campus on the largely undeveloped land. But when a court ratified the conservancy’s right of eminent domain, the agency couldn’t come up with the funds to buy the property. SMCC Executive Director Joe Edmiston and Yaroslavsky then negotiated a deal by which Soka would be allowed to expand, but only if it agreed to a significant reduction in the size of its student body and for restrictions that would guarantee environmental protection.
At the time, the city of Malibu argued with environmental groups and other municipalities, including the city of Calabasas, that the campus would cause traffic tie-ups on Malibu Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway. The city also said construction would send sediment downstream to pollute Malibu Creek and Lagoon.
The collapse of the eminent domain action and subsequent approval by the Coastal Commission, which gave Soka the right to reapply for further expansion in 25 years, angered local activist groups such as Save Open Space Santa Monica Mountains. It initiated a lawsuit that challenged county and commission approvals. Malibu environmental land use attorney Frank Angel won in the Court of Appeal, and the decision effectively thwarted Soka’s options for expansion.
When asked about the potential sale of the property to the conservancy, Angel said he was “thrilled the land would now be reunited with its destiny.”
Save Open Space President Mary Wiesbrock expressed gratitude to Yaroslavsky for spearheading the effort “to save the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.”
In his letter to Edmiston and Soka President Daniel Habuki, Yaroslavsky suggested a “window of opportunity” exists for the “successful sale of this property.”
Asked about Yaroslavsky’s assessment that a sale must be “consummated quickly,” Edmiston said once the state budget is certified in July, there will be “any number of agencies” lining up to claim leftover bond monies from Proposition 40 and 50, statewide initiatives that were passed in 2002. “There’s a backlog of projects that will be applying for the funds remaining,” Edmiston said. “We want to be at the head of the line.”
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who has long been sympathetic to securing land in the Santa Monica Mountains for public benefit, said she and Assemblymember Fran Pavley guaranteed that any bond funds the conservancy was eligible for were included in the budget for the new fiscal year.
“In the 1990s, it became obvious that the only solution for valuable environmental lands that had been purchased privately was to buy them back one parcel at a time” Kuehl said.
Kuehl and Pavley were also instrumental in the conservancy’s recent purchase of the 2,800-acre Ahmanson Ranch, which had been slated for more than 3,000 homes and two golf courses at Las Virgenes Road and the 101 Freeway.
Former Gov. Gray Davis and then-State Resources Director Mary Nichols supported the Ahmanson purchase. Asked whether the climate for this kind of land acquisition had changed with the administration of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edmiston said, “I can’t think of any reason the governor wouldn’t be supportive. He rides his motorcycle along Mulholland. He’s seen what a beautiful piece of property this is.”