Soka University of America

initially operated from 1987 a small ESL (English as a Second Language) school at the Calabasas campus, enrolling just under 100 students. In 1990, SUA announced plans to build a future liberal arts college on campus and plans to expand the facility over the next 25 years to an enrollment of as many as 5,000 students, but ran into opposition from some local residents, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, environmentalists, and government representatives.
Opponents sought to protect the Chumash ancestral site, the natural habitats and ecology, and the expansive open space viewshed within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and to prevent a development of unprecedented urban density adjacent to Malibu Creek State Park. According to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, the reputation of the Soka Gakkai - sometimes denounced as a cult -, its political power in Japan, and several scandals, also raised criticism against the project.
According to an article by the Los Angeles Times, the SUA "enlisted …