UC Santa Cruz is beginning a multiyear effort to update its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), a revision that is expected to guide the campus's physical development through the year 2020. The first in what is expected to be a series of public workshops on the LRDP process will be held on the evening of Wednesday, November 5.
The workshop will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Sierra and Dawn Rooms at the UCSC Inn, located at 611 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz.
Designed to provide a description of the LRDP project, outline the project's process and time line, and introduce the project team, the November 5 workshop will also serve as a first opportunity for people to participate in the development of the long-range plan. "This is an opportunity early on for people to meet our planning team and inform us about the issues and values that need to be considered as we update our LRDP," said Charles Eadie, director of campus and community planning at UCSC.
Within the University of California system, LRDPs are drafted to support the academic goals of individual campuses; they also take into account projected statewide enrollment demand.
Upon their completion, the long-range plans define a building program and a land-use map that serve as a comprehensive planning framework for capital construction, infrastructure, and land-use programs. LRDPs, however, are not implementation plans, Eadie said, and adoption of an LRDP does not constitute a commitment to specific projects, construction schedules, or funding priorities.
In addition to holding meetings that will provide opportunities for public input, UCSC's LRDP project team will be working with local agencies as part of the process, Eadie added.
The process that is just beginning will produce UCSC's fifth Long Range Development Plan, following plans that were adopted in 1963 (two years before the campus opened), 1971, 1978, and 1988.
A major influence on the new LRDP will be ideas that emerge from a parallel campus planning effort: the work of the Strategic Futures Committee, charged with identifying the range of academic and research programs that may emerge in UCSC's future.
Campus officials decided to use the year 2020 as the end of the planning horizon because that time frame will be aligned with the city of Santa Cruz's comparable planning document, its General Plan, also soon to be updated. "While our academic goals and the state's higher-education needs are important factors in the development of our physical plan," Eadie said, "we also need to develop a plan that incorporates input from the community."
According to a schedule that has been developed by campus officials, during the current academic year the campus's academic vision will be updated and LRDP public workshops will take place. In the 2004-05 year, a draft LRDP will be completed and work will begin on a draft environmental impact report (EIR) for the LRDP. In the 2005-06 year, the draft EIR will be presented to the public for comments, and the LRDP and EIR will be submitted to UC's Board of Regents for final consideration.
For more information, call (831) 460-3570. As the project proceeds, information will also be available on the following web site: www2.ucsc.edu/ppc/planning/lrdp-2005.html.
