Prepping for Litigation Over People's Park

UC-Berkeley, in preparing for litigation over its plan to construct student housing in People's Park, faces the argument that it should be putting its housing in other locations. Thus, it has emphasized that it IS building in other locations.

From Berkeleyside:

UC Berkeley has identified its next two sites for student housing development in Berkeley. Both are in Southside and together could add up to 2,700 more beds. The Public Affairs Office at Bancroft Way and Fulton Street would be replaced with student dorms with an estimated 1,200 beds, though the actual numbers have not been determined yet. Dorms rising from the site of the parking garage and tennis courts on Channing Way and Ellsworth Street would be even larger, with about 1,500 beds. The developments are still in early stages. UC Berkeley is reviewing submissions from architects and the projects won’t break ground for another two-and-a-half or three years. But if the plans come to fruition, they could be the university’s largest student housing projects to date.

The two projects would significantly increase the total number of university-owned beds for Cal students. The university aimed to “maximize density” and hit “aggressive” targets for the number of student beds, said Peter Gorman, director of housing development at UC Berkeley, during a meeting between the city, UC Berkeley and Cal students... Critics of the UC’s plan to develop at People’s Park have asked the university why it won’t build housing elsewhere. UC Berkeley officials have repeated the same line about building on all available sites. “This isn’t really an either/or pick and choose which sites we can develop. We really have to develop all of these,” Gorman repeated at the meeting...

Full story at https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/04/25/uc-berkeley-2-sites-build-student-housing.