Appeals Court Blocks UC Berkeley Housing at People’s Park

UC Berkeley’s plan to build 1,100 beds for students on its People’s Park property has run into a major roadblock – again.

Six months after receiving a go-ahead from a local judge to build two dormitories with 148 apartments at 2556 Haste Street, a state appeals court has stopped the project, ruling its environmental study was not up to snuff, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

In a 3-0 decision, the First District Appellate Court justices found the Environmental Impact Report “inadequately analyzed potential alternatives to Housing Project No. 2 and impacts from noise and displacement.”

In a rarity for an appeals court ruling, the 47-page decision attempts to quell any public outrage that might result.

“We do not take sides on policy issues. Our task is limited. We must apply the laws that the Legislature has written to the facts in the record,” the decision reads. It adds the project can continue if UC Berkeley regents “return to the trial court and fix the errors in the EIR.”

The university plan calls for homes for 1,113 university students and 125 homeless residents within 12- and six-story dorm buildings at the university-owned park. Some 1.7 acres would be preserved as open space, while UC Berkeley plans for a People’s Park memorial.

The housing project at People’s Park has drawn fierce protest and controversy for years.

A half century ago, a similar plan sparked a violent protest that established People’s Park as a hotbed of social dissent. A 1969 demonstration against UC Berkeley’s plans to build housing on the 2.8-acre site led to a clash of 6,000 protesters, one death and scores of injuries.

The project has led to recent protests and clashes with Berkeley police, which last year racked up more than $4 million in excess costs for the university, according to public records.

In August, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled that the $312 million plan to finally build homes in People’s Park, three blocks south of campus, could move forward.

But the appeals court judges said that Cal’s environmental study was incomplete.

“The EIR failed to justify the decision not to consider alternative locations to the People’s Park project,” the judges wrote. “In addition, it failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus, a longstanding problem that the EIR improperly dismissed as speculative.”

Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said the university is “dismayed” by the decision and plans to ask the California Supreme Court to overturn it.

“Left in place, this decision will indefinitely delay all of UC Berkeley’s planned student housing, which is desperately needed by our students and fully supported by the City of Berkeley’s mayor and other elected representatives,” Mogulof said in a statement. “This decision has the potential to prevent colleges and universities across the State of California from providing students with the housing they need and deserve.”

The appellate court decision notes that UC Berkeley provides housing for less than a quarter of its student body, “by far the lowest percentage in the UC system.”

“The campus remains fully committed to building the People’s Park project, that commitment is unwavering,” Mogulof said.

— Dana Bartholomew