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Saturday, August 6, 2022

People's Park challenge for the legislature/governor

From the LA TimesIn yet another setback to UC Berkeley’s plans to transform historic People’s Park into housing for students and the homeless, a state appeals court has issued an injunction temporarily halting construction. The court’s decision means that the university will be unlikely to resume work on the site until at least October, assuming it prevails in the litigation. University construction crews — backed by scores of police officers — had moved into the park early Wednesday and began felling trees to commence work on the controversial project, only to retreat hours later in the face of fierce resistance from protesters...

The order, issued by the California 1st District Court of Appeal, enjoins UC Berkeley from all construction, as well as from further demolition, tree cutting and landscape alteration at the park until a hearing on opponents’ environmental challenges can be heard. The university is allowed to keep the park closed off — although the security fence it erected this week will have to be rebuilt because nearly all of it was dismantled by protesters...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-05/california-appeals-court-halts-further-construction-at-peoples-park-in-berkeley.

NOTE: The legislature/governor intervened a few months ago when a demand for an environmental review halted UC-Berkeley's plans to increase enrollment. A bill was passed undoing a court decision. As we keep noting, the proposal for student housing construction is closely related to expanding enrollment. So, again, the legislature/governor could intervene here, or just choose to blame UC. 

See our post (including video!) of earlier today on the Munger Monster Dorm - another aspect of the same issue:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/08/more-on-munger-monster-dorm.html.

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