Coastal Panel Delays Ruling on Soka Expansion
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AGOURA HILLS — The California Coastal Commission on Thursday postponed a decision on the expansion plans of Soka University of America, which have been debated for six years.
The matter was postponed until the panel’s February meeting.
The liberal arts university needed the commission’s approval because the campus is located in an area the commission regulates, which extends from the ocean to the first ridgeline in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The expansion plan, as approved by Los Angeles County last year, would increase Soka’s student population from 350 to 650 full-time students, 500 of them living on campus, with 150 students taking extension courses.
At a six-hour hearing Thursday, opponents of the plan said they were concerned because the expansion requires an amendment to the Coastal Commission’s Malibu/ Santa Monica Mountains Land Use Plan. Granting that amendment, they said, would set a dangerous precedent and encourage other developers to attempt to make major changes in the coastal code.
They also decried the expansion as “urbanization” of an important portion of the Santa Monica Mountains and are concerned that the land set side as a buffer zone would provide space for Soka to expand in the future.
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