SOKA EXPANSION DECISION DELAYED.Byline: Sharline Chiang Daily News Staff Writer Prolonging the final phase of an eight-year battle, the California Coastal Commission The California Coastal Commission is a state agency in the U.S. state of California with quasi-judicial regulatory influence over land use and public access in the California coastal zone. held off making a call Thursday night on whether Soka University Soka University (創価大学, Sōka Daigaku) is a private university located in Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan. The school was founded in 1969 and opened to undergraduate students in 1971 and opened a graduate school in 1975. should be allowed to increase development at its sprawling campus. A vote on the university's expansion application was re-scheduled for next month's commission meeting to allow more time for discussion, meeting participants said. However, the commission did address two separate requests to change land use designations at Soka's 588-acre property south of Calabasas. The commission turned down a request to use 40 acres of land currently restricted to camping and other light commercial recreation use for institutional purposes. But it granted Soka's request to allow the university to use a portion of land now designated for residential use for institutional uses. The commission regulates development along the state's 1,100-mile coastline. Residents of Monte Nido, Calabasas and Malibu who have spent years opposing Soka University's efforts to develop the old Gillette Ranch boarded a bus Thursday and headed to a hearing in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. to persuade the panel to limit expansion. Soka's plan would increase student enrollment from 350 to 800 at the university, which specializes in language and Pacific Rim Pacific Rim, term used to describe the nations bordering the Pacific Ocean and the island countries situated in it. In the post–World War II era, the Pacific Rim has become an increasingly important and interconnected economic region. studies. Some opponents Thursday said institutions should not be able to persuade the commission to use areas designated for open space for institutional uses. ``The thing we're disappointed in is this is a subversion of what ought to happen in land use planning
Land use planning is the term used for a branch of public policy which encompasses various disciplines which seek to order and regulate the use of land in an efficient and ethical way. ,'' said Josephine Powe, a homeowner in Monte Nido who has been fighting expansion for six years. ``What the commission is doing is putting the cart before the horse. It should be done with long-range planning and not to meet a specific applicant's needs.'' Soka's neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. residents and environmentalists say they have been working to save the wildlife and environment near the university's site, at the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway  This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers.Please [improve the article] or discuss this issue on the talk page. . University officials have argued they have done everything possible to appease their neighbors and ensure minimal impact on the environment. |
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