Soka Cuts Students From Plan to Expand : Santa Monicas: The school scales back its enrollment growth by up to 40%, but critics are not assuaged.

Soka University administrators announced Wednesday that they will scale back their controversial expansion plans by as much as 40%, but critics of the Tokyo-based school were not mollified.

Under the revised plans, the school would increase its enrollment over the next 25 years to between 2,500 and 3,400 students, down from a previous proposed increase to 4,400, Soka spokesman Jeff Ourvan said.

Ourvan said the changes were made in response to comments from Los Angeles County planners and to show the school is interested in negotiating with neighboring Calabasas, which fears increased traffic from the expanded school.

“We want to resolve this issue and establish a university here,” Ourvan said.

Calabasas City Councilwoman Karyn Foley said she was encouraged that the university has begun to respond to community concerns. “Apparently they are beginning to read the feelings of the community a little,” she said.

But other opponents of the expansion were skeptical, characterizing the school’s offer as a negotiating ploy.

“I know that is normally the way development goes around here,” said Dave Gackenbach, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “You start at 5,000 and go to 4,400 and then down to 2,500, but you end up with more than you wanted anyway.”

Soka sits on land at Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway long coveted by the National Park Service as a visitors center. The school has refused to sell, prompting the park service and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to threaten condemnation.

“That property is still high priority for the park service,” Gackenbach said. “That hasn’t changed because the numbers have dropped.”

Conservancy Director Joseph T. Edmiston said his agency objects to the use of the property as a private university, regardless of how many students are proposed. “The issue for us is whether that land is in public ownership or not,” he said.

Ourvan said the new plans would not require a zone change or any amendments to Los Angeles County’s general plan for the area--unlike previous plans, which required both.