State to hear arguments on People's Park
The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a case that blocked a controversial UC Berkeley housing project proposed at People's Park — wading into a battle over 2.8 acres of land that has drawn decades of protest.
More than a year after a lower court ruled the project's Environmental Impact Report was inadequate, California's highest court announced Tuesday that they will hear arguments in Los Angeles on April 3.
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. UC attorneys asked the California Supreme Court in February of 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 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 that the project can continue if UC Berkeley regents “return to the trial court and fix the errors in the EIR.”
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.”
On Wednesday, Mogulof added that “because of the extraordinary support we've received from the California State Legislature, the governor, Berkeley's mayor and city council, and from students, parents and neighbors, we're cautiously optimistic about our prospects in the Supreme Court and about our ability to start construction in the summer.”
The attorney for Make UC a Good Neighbor, the group that sued to block the housing, could not immediately be 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 CEQA.
The battle over whether or not People's Park should be developed stretches back to 1969 when the university's initial push to build housing on the site culminated in thousands of protesters, leading to a state of emergency and one death. The university had 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 the next year. People's Park subsequently emerged as a hotbed of activism and was home to 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 plan to develop the site into housing for more than 1,000 students and up to 100 units for unhoused residents. Prior to that announcement, the historic open space located just off Telegraph Avenue, three blocks south of campus, for years unofficially served as an outdoor home for a number of unhoused people in the area.
Encampments at the park were cleared, and demolition finally began before dawn on Aug. 3, 2022, but the project was put on hold after a chaotic standoff erupted between police and protesters who wanted to preserve the land as open space. It has remained in limbo since, and the university hopes a favorable ruling from the California Supreme Court will allow it to move forward.
In January of 2024, hundreds of law enforcement officials outfitted in riot gear were deployed by the university to push out activists occupying the park. They were met by a heated throng of protesters. At least six people were arrested 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, which was then walled off with 160 rusty metal cargo boxes.