UC Santa Cruz To Host ‘Inclusion Area D’ Public Workshop On April 5

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The University of California, Santa Cruz, will host a public workshop on Thursday, April 5, to discuss a master plan that the campus has begun preparing in order to build faculty and staff housing on campus land near the main entrance to UCSC. The master plan will consider development options for 28 acres designated as "Inclusion Area D" in UCSC’s _Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). _Inclusion Area D is located between UCSC’s main entrance, Arboretum, and Farm.

The meeting will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. in UCSC Extension classrooms in downtown Santa Cruz. UCSC Extension is located on the second floor of the University Town Center building at 1101 Pacific Avenue; the entrance and public parking are located behind the building.

Anyone interested in this topic is urged to attend the workshop and ask questions, share information, or provide input, said Charles Eadie, UCSC’s director of campus and community planning.

The campus’s LRDP, which provides a blueprint for campus growth, set aside several inclusion areas, including "D," to accommodate nonacademic, university-related activities such as faculty and staff housing.

UCSC has hired a Santa Monica architectural firm–Moore, Ruble, Yudell–to develop a master plan for Inclusion Area D. Representatives of the consulting firm will be in attendance at the April 5 workshop to present planning approaches for the development of the site. At the workshop, UCSC officials will describe the university’s need for housing and explain the planning process for Inclusion Area D.

"The purpose of the workshop is to involve the public in the early phase of our development of a master plan for Inclusion Area D," Eadie said. "The public isn’t always given an opportunity to comment on a development at its conceptual stage. Typically, public comment doesn’t occur until a specific project is proposed and a draft EIR is in its review phase. In this case, we think it is important to involve the public much earlier in the process."

UCSC has a critical need for faculty and staff housing on campus, Eadie said, adding that UCSC expects to recruit 300 new faculty and replace 300 retiring faculty during the next 10 years. "The cost of housing and the lack of inventory in the regional housing market are making it difficult to compete with other universities in attracting new employees," he said.

At a second public workshop, expected to take place in May, the consultants will present a number of development options for the site. "By the end of the master planning phase, probably in June, we expect that the consultants and a campus building committee will have narrowed our focus and will provide–at a schematic level–a project proposal."

That project will then be the subject of an Environmental Impact Report, which will receive public scrutiny after a draft EIR is prepared. Ultimately, the project that is proposed and a final EIR will need to be approved by UC’s Board of Regents.

Preliminary planning schedules indicate that if housing is built on Inclusion Area D, it could be occupied as early as 2003.