The Supreme Court of California agreed Wednesday to consider UC Berkeley regents’ petition to develop the university’s People’s Park site, setting aside a lower-court ruling earlier this year pushing school officials to study alternative sites.
The university has long sought to construct housing with 1,100 beds for students, as well as a 125-unit building for extremely low-income, unhoused or formerly housed people, on the 2.8-acre site. A developer for that project pulled out of consideration just last week.
In a February ruling, the state’s First District Court of Appeals had sided with two neighborhood nonprofits, Make UC a Good Neighbor and the People’s Park Historic Advocacy Group, who filed suit in 2021 to try to preserve the park.
The university only houses 23% of its students — the lowest percentage across the UC system’s ten campuses. As part of its long-term efforts to increase student housing, the park has been one of several sites on the university’s long-range development plan adopted in 2021.
The park proposal, approved at $312 million, became a lightning rod anew after a July 2022 decision by an Alameda County Superior Court judge that UC’s housing plans did not violate CEQA. The following month, the university spent $4 million during a standoff between police and protesters after attempts to fence off and clear the park.
UC spokesman Dan Mogulof greeted the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday with guarded warmth: “This is a very positive and very welcome development. However, given that we do not yet know the full scope of the Supreme Court’s review, we will, for the time being, refrain from further comment.”
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Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
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