CALABASAS : Agency to Make Offer for Soka Land
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A state parks agency seeking to acquire part of Soka University’s property in the Santa Monica Mountains reported Thursday that its board had unanimously agreed to make an offer for the land.
The amount of the offer for 245 acres of land near Calabasas was not disclosed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, an arm of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. The state agency wants to make the site a national park headquarters.
Soka paid nearly $18 million for the land in the mid-1980s, and school officials said they have spent about $12 million since then to improve buildings and landscaping.
The Tokyo-based school, which currently offers English and Japanese classes to about 175 students, submitted an environmental impact report to county planners Thursday requesting permission to expand to 3,400 students, down from its original goal of 5,000.
Attorney Hodge Dolle, who represents Soka, said the school is not interested in selling any of the 580 acres it owns at any price.
“It’s not an issue of money,” Dolle said. “They’ve spent many years trying to develop something there and they’d like to just go ahead and do it.”
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