UC Santa Cruz has long sought to balance the need for educational access for California’s students with community concerns about campus impacts, particularly those that revolve around housing, traffic, and water use. We believe that our 2021 Long Range Development Plan, informed by four years of collaborative discussion with campus and community members before unanimous approval by the UC Board of Regents in September, represents that balance.
We are disappointed by these lawsuits, and had hoped to avoid litigation by entering into an agreement with the city and county prior to the plan’s approval in order to provide additional time for parties to identify and address reasonable concerns. Those focused conversations began in earnest last fall, but did not achieve the resolution that we had hoped for.
Campus leaders will continue to work closely with local elected leaders on many areas of shared interest and concern. We will continue to focus our energies on creating the housing and academic spaces our campus needs to fulfill our mission and furthering initiatives that advance student success and the impact of our research. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with community leaders and receiving feedback about future projects that support the objectives outlined in our 2021 LRDP. Proposed campus projects will have opportunities for stakeholder input through the rigorous planning, design, and environmental review processes.
We believe our 2021 Long Range Development Plan is a win for our campus and a win for our community. It is a well thought-out, comprehensive plan that will serve as a blueprint for our physical development over the next two decades. It utilizes a compact footprint for teaching, learning, research, housing and student support spaces. It plans to expand housing for 100 percent of new full-time student enrollment above 19,500 and includes plans for housing for up to 25 percent of new employees based on demand. It improves circulation on campus with new bikeways and pedestrian paths, focusing on alternative modes of transportation to reduce single-occupancy car trips. The future imagined by the LRDP is an inclusive one that supports the university’s mission and is respectful of our environment and the greater Santa Cruz County community.
