June 26, 2020 Comments and Guidance Received on the Scope
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UC Berkeley A&E Building Capital Strategies Berkeley, CA 94720-1382 Physical & Environmental [email protected] Planning capitalstrategies.berkeley.edu June 26, 2020 Comments and guidance received on the scope and content of the Environmental Impact Report for the Long Range Development Plan Update and Housing Projects #1 and #2 from interested public agencies, organizations, and individuals. Responses must have been sent at the earliest possible date, but no later than the close of the 39-day Notice of Preparation (NOP) review period at 5:00 p.m. on May 15, 2020. All comments received will be considered in preparation of the Draft Environmental Impact Report anticipated to be released in 2021. Inquiries: Kyle Gibson, Director of Communications [email protected] UC Berkeley Mail - Public Notice: Preparation of an Environmental Impa... https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=c13b967b21&view=pt&search=all... UC Berkeley Mail - Update of the LRDP https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=c13b967b21&view=pt&search=all... Planning Departmental <[email protected]> Planning Departmental <[email protected]> Public Notice: Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report - UC Berkeley Long Update of the LRDP Range Development Plan Update and Housing Projects #1 and #2 1 message 1 message Nadesan Permaul Tue, Apr 7, 2020 at 6:49 PM Jordan Burns Tue, Apr 7, 2020 at 4:39 PM To: Planning Departmental <[email protected]> To: Planning Departmental <[email protected]> The notion of planning for an expansion of the LRDP to accommodate 48,200 Hello, students without dramatic staffing and infrastructure improvements makes no sense. I am fully in support of building new housing. Housing project 1 and housing project 2 sound great. I would support The Berkeley campus, proper, is already over-crowded with oversize buildings, many even more housing. I would support the college adding 30,000 new units for undergraduate and graduate students. I of which add nothing to the ambience of the place. We cannot afford to build housing love that the projects are mixed use with amenities on bottom. I love that there's going to be services for our unhoused for a student population as it is, though the campus has looked into innovative population and that there is also affordable housing for the community in general. This stuff is great. Please do more of it. And tell me when to show up to yell at the city council to let you all do more of it. options and partnerships. More importantly, the cost of living in that housing is among the highest in the nation, and creates ongoing issues for student affordability Best, at Berkeley. Adding a student population without adequate teaching Jordan Burns accommodations, staffing to support the academic mission, and faculty at all levels to provide class coverage is worse than maintaining our current status quo. For the next two budget cycles, the Covid-19 pandemic will substantially affect the campus finances. Teaching positions will be at a premium, and there will be both staff reductions and hiring freezes. Finally, if these staffing and infrastructure issues are addressed, where will the campus add 4 million square feet? Nadesan Permaul -- Nadesan Permaul Lecturer in Rhetoric and Political Science, U.C. Berkeley Academic Sponsor for Rhetoric 98/198- History, Spirit & Traditions at Cal Decal Class Retired Director of the Associated Students of the University of California Room 7412 Dwinelle Hall Office Hours, Fall Semester 2019--Tues from 1:00 to 1:50 p.m., Fri from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. in Rm. 7412 Dwinelle Web Page: nadesanpermaul.com/ 1 of 1 4/14/2020, 10:54 AM 1 of 1 4/14/2020, 10:56 AM UC Berkeley Mail - Public Comment on UCB LRDP Update EIR https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=c13b967b21&view=pt&search=all... UC Berkeley Mail - Public Comment on UCB LRDP Update EIR https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=c13b967b21&view=pt&search=all... Planning Departmental <[email protected]> increase, decrease, or remain unchanged and the provision of new facilities may or may not occur with the increased population. In the event that population growth does occur, an LRDP provides a guide to the land development patterns and associated physical infrastructure that could be built to support a forecasted level of enrollment and growth. The LRDP Update does Public Comment on UCB LRDP Update EIR not set a future population capacity for the campus and does not indicate whether a future 1 message LRDP or LRDP update will be undertaken prior to or after the forecast horizon year in the Alfred Twu Tue, Apr 7, 2020 at 7:00 PM EIR. The LRDP Update EIR will use the 2018-19 academic year as a key baseline year to To: [email protected] reflect existing environmental conditions and will use the 2036-37 academic year to forecast the potential environmental impacts of the LRDP Update. This corresponds to 39,300 I am glad to see that UC is planning to build more student housing, but 11,700 beds is not enough. students and 15,400 faculty and staff for the baseline year, and 48,200 students and 19,000 faculty and staff for the potential future population. To support the future population, the LRDP Two years ago, the Housing Master Plan Task Force identified that 15,600 beds were needed, and only 8,700 Update proposes to add up to 11,700 student housing beds, 385 employee housing units, available, for a shortage of 6,900 beds. and approximately 4 million gross square feet (GSF) of academic and campus life space, comprising approximately 3 million GSF of academic, research, and support space and The current EIR estimates 8,900 additional students a year. To house these students and make up the current 6,900 approximately 1 million GSF of campus life space. bed shortage, 15,800 beds are needed. We should not rely on private housing to make up this difference, since Berkeley and the Bay Area as a whole also has a shortage of regular housing, especially since the plan also expects Since there is significant need to provide more student housing at UC Berkeley, the LRDP the number of faculty and staff to go up from 15,400 to 19,000, while only providing 385 employee housing units. Update EIR evaluates the physical environmental effects of the LRDP Update proposed Let there be enough housing. Please plan for at least 15,800 student beds and 4,400 employee housing units. development program that includes two specific student housing projects located off of the Campus Park. Housing Project #1 would include up to 850 beds for UC Berkeley students, UC Berkeley has permission to read my comment. with ground floor retail, and commercial office, events, and student-serving space. Housing Project #2 would consist of three components to be constructed on the roughly 2.8-acre site Thanks! known as People’s Park. It would include up to 1,200 beds for UC Berkeley students with Alfred Twu associated amenities; permanent supportive housing with on-site services and up to 125 Berkeley neighbor and class of 2006 apartments for lower-income (non-university affiliated) individuals; and open space. The supportive housing would be included on-site in a building separate from the student housing On Tue, Apr 7, 2020 at 3:00 PM Capital Strategies, UC Berkeley <[email protected]> wrote: and would be developed and managed by one or more non-profit organizations partnering with the University of California. Environmental Review: UC Berkeley has determined that an EIR will be prepared for the proposed project. Attachment B of the Notice of Preparation includes a description of the environmental topic areas in which the proposed project would have no impact, and therefore, will not be addressed in the EIR. As required, the EIR for the LRDP Update will focus on the significant effects of the proposed project and will document the reasons for concluding that other effects will be less-than-significant. Where significant or potentially PUBLIC NOTICE significant environmental impacts are identified, the EIR will also discuss feasible mitigation measures to avoid or reduce these impacts, and a reasonable range of potentially feasible alternatives. Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report: University of California, Berkeley Long Range Development Plan Update and Housing Projects #1 and #2 Public Comment: UC Berkeley requests comments and guidance on the scope and content of the EIR from interested public agencies, organizations, and individuals. With respect to the UC Berkeley will prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Long Range views of Responsible and Trustee Agencies as to significant environmental issues, UC Development Plan (LRDP) Update (“LRDP Update” or “proposed project”). The EIR will Berkeley needs to know the significant environmental issues and reasonable alternatives and function as a Program EIR that can be used in the environmental review of subsequent mitigation measures that are germane to each agency’s statutory responsibilities in campus development projects during implementation of the LRDP Update. In addition to connection with the proposed project. analyzing the environmental effects of campus growth under the LRDP Update at a programmatic level, the EIR will also provide a project-specific analysis of the environmental Due to time limits mandated by State law, your response must be sent at the earliest possible effects associated with the development of two off-campus housing projects (i.e., Housing date, but no later than the close of the 39-day Notice of Preparation (NOP) review period at Projects #1 and #2), which would likely be some of the first projects developed under the 5:00 p.m.