Soka University of America

well-connected lobbyists and advocates in a bid to influence Congress and the Interior Department
In 1992, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), a joint-powers authority associated with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, resorted to its powers of eminent domain to condemn the core parcel comprising the institution and thereby halted SUA's plans for expansion. The legal debate continued for the remainder of the decade, and the SUA enlisted well-connected lobbyists and advocates in a bid to influence Congress and the Interior Department", says the Los Angeles Times newspaper. Soka University was eventually prevented from developing any expansion plans at the Calabasas property and began looking for alternative sites to build a larger campus.
The graduate school held its first commencement in December 1995, and in the same year SUA acquired a 103-acre site in Aliso Viejo for a private non-profit four-year liberal arts college, and built a $265-million campus. The Aliso Viejo campus opened …