Probable Go-Ahead for People's Park Student Housing

From the San Francisco Chronicle: A state Supreme Court hearing [this past] Wednesday left little doubt that the University of California, with a boost from state lawmakers, will be allowed to build housing for students in historic People’s Park despite objections from some of its neighbors. Questioned by several justices, Thomas Lippe, a lawyer for neighborhood groups opposing the project, conceded that a bill that sped through the Legislature with no dissenting votes last September and was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom removed legal barriers to the $312 million project. It would include housing for about 1,100 students and for more than 100 homeless people who camp on the 2.8-acre site south of the Berkeley campus.

But Lippe asked the court not to dismiss the lawsuit that had challenged the housing plan, and instead to use the case to require the university to consider the local impact of its separate long-range plans to add thousands of students. UC Berkeley provides housing for only 23% of its 45,000 students, and the neighborhood groups say future expansion will increase noise, traffic and environmental hazards outside the campus.

...In response, the university’s lawyer, Nicole Gordon, said the September legislation, AB1307 by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, was intended to nullify a state appeals court ruling that UC Berkeley must consider alternative housing plans that would cause less neighborhood noise than the People’s Park project...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/people-s-park-dorms-likely-proceed-state-court-19382411.php.