Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz officials say they’re considering their next steps after a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge sided Monday with the city and county of Santa Cruz in a lawsuit arguing that the university’s plan for student enrollment growth didn’t adequately evaluate the potential impacts.
UC Santa Cruz officials say they’re considering their next steps after a Santa Cruz judge issued a final ruling Monday striking down the school’s Long Range Development Plan, which calls for student enrollment growth over the next two decades. It’s a decision the city’s attorney says could reverberate across the University of California system.
Earlier this week, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge said UCSC prepared a “deficient” plan that didn’t adequately consider the impact student enrollment growth would have on housing affordability and other community issues in Santa Cruz County.
In a follow-up hearing Thursday at the Santa Cruz County courthouse, Judge Timothy Schmal outlined the next steps in the case involving the university and the parties that filed the lawsuit: the city and county of Santa Cruz and a local activist group, Habitat and Watershed Caretakers. The parties need to file and agree on a draft final judgment.
The local governments and the caretakers group filed separate lawsuits against UCSC in 2022 alleging that the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and the environmental analysis for it didn’t sufficiently consider the impact on the surrounding community if the university failed to create housing for all of its projected additional students. The lawsuits were partially consolidated.
The LRDP, approved by the UC board of regents in 2021, includes the university’s plan to increase enrollment by an additional 8,500 students by 2040, and provide housing to 100% of those students.
While Schmal has issued his final decision agreeing with the city, county and the activist group, there’s still potential for UCSC and the UC board of regents to appeal. Representatives from the city and county told Lookout after the hearing Thursday that it’s likely the judge will formally enter and sign a final judgment in October. After the final judgment is entered, the board of regents and UCSC have 60 days to appeal.
UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told Lookout the school is dissatisfied with the court’s decision and the university believes the 2021 Long Range Development Plan is “a win for our campus and a win for our community.”
“We are disappointed with the court’s ruling and are determining our next steps,” he said.
Hernandez-Jason didn’t answer questions regarding whether UCSC plans to appeal or if the board of regents plans to rescind its approval of the LRDP and its environmental report.
City Attorney Anthony Condotti told Lookout that the judgment, once finalized and signed, will include a writ of mandate directing the board of regents to overturn the approvals.
However, if the regents appeal the decision, Condotti said that legal process would likely pause, and therefore delay, the timeframe for overturning the LRDP: “It could take a couple of years.”
Still, Condotti thinks this case is significant for other cities where there are University of California system campuses. For years, the City of Santa Cruz has fought to have the university tie the number of students it enrolls to the number of housing units it provides on its campus. He said the university has been “unwilling” to do that.
“The fact that [this decision] holds the university to account for the impacts of increased enrollment on the housing supply is a very significant aspect of the decision,” he said. “That would certainly be of interest to other communities when other campuses are going to increase their enrollment, and they’re all increasing their enrollment. So it’s an issue that other cities are also confronting.”
In his statement to Lookout, Hernandez-Jason said that UCSC has been striving to reach a balance between providing students access to an education and addressing community concerns about 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 2021, represents that balance,” he wrote. “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.”
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