People’s Park: California Supreme Court schedules arguments on controversial UC Berkeley development next month

The California Supreme Court will hear an appeal next month of a case that blocked a UC Berkeley housing project proposed at People’s Park — weighing the legal merit of plans that have drawn decades of intense protest and controversy.

More than a year after a lower court ruled the project’s Environmental Impact Report was inadequate, California’s highest court announced Tuesday they will hear arguments in Los Angeles on April 3. This is the first news development since the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case last May.

UC Berkeley’s proposal for that land includes housing for 1,100 university students and 125 homeless residents within two 12- and six-story dorm buildings — coming full circle since 1969, when the university’s initial desire to build housing on the 2.8-acre site culminated in thousands of protesters, leading to a state of emergency and one death.

Attorneys for Cal asked the California Supreme Court in February 2023 to hear the case, after a state appellate court ruled that UC must either “fix the errors” in its California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documents or ask the state Supreme Court to intervene. The university’s appeal was backed by the city of Berkeley and state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Last year, First District Appellate Court Justices found — in a unanimous 3-0 decision — that the EIR “inadequately analyzed potential alternatives to Housing Project No. 2 and impacts from noise and displacement.”

The 47-page appeals court decision attempted to quell any public outrage that might result.

“We do not take sides on policy issues. Our task is limited. We must apply the laws that the Legislature has written to the facts in the record,” the decision reads. It adds the project can continue if UC Berkeley regents “return to the trial court and fix the errors in the EIR.”

“The EIR failed to justify the decision not to consider alternative locations to the People’s Park project,” the judges wrote. “In addition, it failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus, a longstanding problem that the EIR improperly dismissed as speculative.”

Shortly after that decision was published last year, Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said the university was “dismayed” by the decision and planned to ask the California Supreme Court to overturn it.

“Left in place, this decision will indefinitely delay all of UC Berkeley’s planned student housing, which is desperately needed by our students and fully supported by the City of Berkeley’s mayor and other elected representatives,” Mogulof said in February 2023. “This decision has the potential to prevent colleges and universities across the State of California from providing students with the housing they need and deserve.”

The attorney for Make UC a Good Neighbor, the group that sued to block the housing, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The case was appealed to the state Supreme Court after a July 2022 decision by Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch was overruled. Roesch had given a green light to begin construction on the $312 million proposed housing project, finding it didn’t violate the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA.

UC Berkeley first eyed the site for development when it seized the land by eminent domain and bulldozed the property in 1968 — leaving behind a vacant, muddy lot that hundreds of residents eventually transformed into a park with sod, flowers and trees in 1969. Amid Cal’s push to build on the open space, the land subsequently emerged as a hotbed of activism and cradled decades of political protest, including the infamous “Bloody Thursday” conflict between Berkeley residents, students and law enforcement.

It wasn’t until 2021 that the university approved its current, controversial plan to develop the site into housing for more than 1,000 students and up to 100 units for unhoused residents.

Demolition finally began before dawn on Aug. 3, 2022, but the entire project was put on hold after a chaotic, million-dollar standoff erupted between police and protesters who wanted to preserve the 2.8 acres of land as open space. The university and its housing plans have since slogged through legal challenges and appeals, and are currently awaiting a California Supreme Court to ruling on whether or not the development can move forward.

In January 2024, hundreds of law enforcement officials outfitted in riot gear were deployed by the university to push out activists occupying the 2.8-acre park.

They were met with a heated throng of protesters. At least six people were arrested early Thursday morning for trespassing or refusing to follow dispersal orders, and some were taken to Santa Rita Jail, according to university officials and community members.

Later in the day, angry protesters could only stand and watch behind police barricades that blocked off the surrounding streets around the park that eventually will be walled off by 160 of the rusty metal cargo boxes. The historic open space located just off Telegraph Avenue, three blocks south of campus, unofficially serves as an outdoor home for a number of unhoused people in the area.

At the time, many residents were up in arms over UC Berkeley’s latest attempt to advance the student housing project.

“I’m angry – it’s all about money,” said Helen Finkelstein, who came to the site for a rally that activists had planned for 11 a.m. Thursday. “The park has its problems, but it’s an integral part of the community. It’s a gathering place, and it’s a historical spot.”