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| How many can be squeezed in? |
UC-Santa Cruz, for example, has been in a dispute with its local authorities over increased enrollment. That particular dispute may (or may not) be moving towards a settlement. But there will be others. For the state of affairs at Santa Cruz, see below from Lookout Santa Cruz:
City of Santa Cruz, UCSC in talks to possibly end lawsuits over enrollment and housing plans
BY HILLARY OJEDA, 4-18-23
Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz and the City of Santa Cruz have been embroiled in a lawsuit since February 2022 over UCSC’s plan to boost enrollment by an additional 8,500 students by 2040. The Long Range Development Plan, approved in 2021, set off a wave of lawsuits from the city and the county over potential worsening impacts on the region’s housing market. But now, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley says the two sides are in talks to end the LRDP lawsuit and a second, separate lawsuit related to water access on campus.
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The City of Santa Cruz is in talks with UC Santa Cruz to potentially end a long-running dispute over enrollment growth and housing. UCSC and the City of Santa Cruz have been involved in a lawsuit since February 2022 over the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). The plan lays out UCSC’s vision of growth, including enrolling an additional 8,500 students by 2040, bringing the total student population to 28,000. The University of California Board of Regents approved the plan in 2021, setting off a wave of lawsuits from the city and the county over potential worsening impacts on the region’s housing inventory, among other repercussions.
But now, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley says, the two sides are in talks to end the LRDP lawsuit and an additional lawsuit related to water access. Keeley said that over the past month or so — including two conversations in the past week — he’s spoken in person and over the phone with UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive and two UC regents about meeting outside of court to come to an agreement. “The chancellor and I talked on [April 10] for what I would call a shape-of-the-table discussion, as opposed to a substantive discussion about the issues involved,” Keeley said. “She is interested in having a campus-level meeting with her and their legal counsel, myself and the appropriate staff from the city and that we sit down for — I suspect more than one meeting — where we can talk with each other on the couple of pieces of litigation outside of the courts.” Keeley said their first formal meeting will be the morning of May 12.
UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said the campus is interested in resolving both lawsuits. “We are interested in continuing meetings with the city to explore agreements about our LRDP and water access that might be reached outside the courts,” he wrote to Lookout last week. At the UC regents meeting last month, Keeley publicly supported the UCSC’s Student Housing West project and also publicly commented that the city wanted to reach an agreement outside of litigation. City Attorney Anthony P. Condotti described Keeley’s gesture at that meeting as the city extending an “olive branch.”
“My opinion is litigation is a sign of failure, not a sign of success,” Keeley told Lookout earlier this month. “And if it’s possible, if the regents want to, if the [UC] Office of the President wants to — it was a sincere offer from the city — we would like to see if we can make something happen. If the answer’s no, then the litigation moves along.” ...
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/04/getting-everyone-on-board-with-higher.html.
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