SOKA SUIT SEEKS TO SET MINIMUM OF 1,500 STUDENTS\Motion seen as way to boost property value.

Byline: Marni McEntee Daily News Staff Writer

In a move that could scuttle settlement talks in a condemnation fight, Soka University filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County on Friday that asserts its Calabasas campus has the right to have at least 1,500 students.

In the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Soka contends that building permits issued by the county already give the campus the power to increase its 200-student population to 1,500.

Soka officials said the lawsuit is necessary to ensure an accurate property appraisal as the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy attempts to condemn some of the university's land for park space.

Until an accurate student-population figure can be agreed upon, the county is causing an unfair delay to the university's expansion plans, said Soka attorney William D. Ross.

The issue has disrupted talks attempting to settle the conservancy's condemnation lawsuit out of court, Ross said.

"The university wouldn't have filed the litigation if there wasn't a problem with the settlement proceedings," Ross said. "This is a very serious lawsuit."

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the lawsuit could throw a wrench into the discussions between Soka and the conservancy, which also is named in Friday's lawsuit.

"It's a deal-breaker for us. We will not validate a 1,500-student zoning entitlement," said Yaroslavsky, who has been involved in the negotiations since July.

Settlement talks were reopened in July in the conservancy's lawsuit to force Soka to sell 245 of its 660 acres.

In recent months, Yaroslavsky and Rep. Anthony Beilenson, D-Woodland Hills, the main parties in the negotiations, generally have agreed to limiting the student population at 650, Yaroslavsky said.

"It's trickery, and it's not legal and it won't stand up," Yaroslavsky said of the university's insistence on a 1,500-student minimum.

He said the lawsuit is a blatant attempt to inflate the property value in anticipation of an appraisal.

The lawsuit follows up an October letter on the occupancy issue to the county. The letter had threatened legal action.

In the lawsuit, the university argues that it should have the right to increase its student population to 1,500 because it spent $12 million renovating the campus.

The university also argues that the county unreasonably has delayed processing its application for a permit to expand the campus. And it challenges $40 million the conservancy received under the 1992 county ballot Proposition A, claiming those funds cannot be used to purchase land unless there is a willing seller.

The condemnation suit against Soka, filed in 1992 by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint-powers agency and arm of the conservancy, sought to dedicate to public use Soka's property in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Its historic Gillette Ranch, built by the razor magnate King Gillette, was to serve as a National Park visitors center, but that idea has since been abandoned.

The latest working proposal in the settlement talks would allow Soka to expand its buildings by 570,000 square feet and would donate 400 acres of its 660 acres to the MRCA for use as open space, officials said. Conservancy officials said some of those numbers since have changed or declined, but would not specify the changes.

Conservancy Executive Director Joseph Edmiston said Friday that he had not yet read the lawsuit, but predicted it could increase pressure on the settlement talks.