UCSC continues fighting judge’s ruling against enrollment growth plan

More than eight months after a judge effectively tossed out UC Santa Cruz’s long-term expansion plans, a lawsuit between the university and the county and city of Santa Cruz remains in legal limbo awaiting a date for a court to hear the school’s appeal. 

The university filed an appeal in December of a ruling by Judge Timothy Schmal that found UCSC’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) failed to adequately address how expanding enrollment by 8,500 students by 2040 would affect local housing affordability and other community issues. The judge’s Oct. 4 order gave the University of California Board of Regents 90 days to overturn its 2021 approval of UCSC’s LRDP and 120 days to report how the regents had complied with the ruling.

Those deadlines have long since passed — more than 255 days have elapsed — with no public indication of the university’s compliance. The school appealed the ruling on Dec. 12. 

UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason declined to comment on the litigation, whether the university has met any of the judge’s requirements, or how the university’s housing projects and enrollment growth could be affected if it ultimately loses the appeal.  

In an email, he said the school “thoughtfully developed and rigorously reviewed” its LRDP and that its environmental impact report “fully complies with the law.”

“We believe those thoughtful planning efforts remain valid today,” he wrote. “As the matter is now under appeal, we will not be providing any further comment at this time.” Media representatives for the University of California directed inquiries to Hernandez-Jason. 

Tony Condotti, attorney for the city of Santa Cruz, said he expects the city to prevail when the case eventually reaches the Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeal. The city plans to file its opposition brief within days, after which the university will have a chance to reply before oral arguments begin.

The LDRP, which has been updated every 10 to 15 years since 1963, lays out the university’s plan to increase enrollment by an additional 8,500 students above its 19,500 enrollment by 2040 and provide housing to all of those students. 

Shortly after the UC Board of Regents approved the plan in 2021, Santa Cruz County, the City of Santa Cruz and the group Habitat and Watershed Caretakers filed separate lawsuits against the LRDP in 2022. 

Opponents of the growth plan say the university failed to thoroughly assess how growing enrollment would impact the surrounding community if the school isn’t able to follow through on its promise of providing housing to all of the additional students. The three lawsuits were partially consolidated. 

The LDRP proposes a host of added features throughout the campus, including new residential colleges, roadways and academic buildings. That includes adding two new pairs of residential colleges and expanding housing at existing colleges in order to house UCSC’s growing student body. Two of the new residential colleges would be located northeast of the academic core and the other two would be located northwest of the academic core.

While those projects haven’t yet been approved by the regents, they are covered by the judge’s ruling against UCSC’s LDRP.

Condotti said the “university cannot proceed with [the] buildout” proposed in the Long Range Development Plan while the appeal is ongoing. He said he wasn’t sure if school officials had taken any actions to comply.

The school’s Student Housing West project was approved under a previous plan and can therefore continue construction. That project, which broke ground last summer, will add about 3,000 new beds once both sites are completed in 2028. Student Housing West was approved in the school’s prior LRDP in 2005 and therefore isn’t affected by the October ruling, which related to the school’s 2021 LRDP.

Delays in developing student housing are a major reason why the university has been dealing with structural deficits in recent years. Last year, the university started addressing a structural deficit that it says began in 2020. Officials point to rapidly rising expenses and a slowdown in revenues — mainly from tuition payments, partially caused by stagnant enrollment growth. 

Without the ability to add housing, the university has struggled to increase its enrollment and therefore revenue from tuition. Separate legal battles previously prevented the university from moving forward with the Student Housing West project for years after it was approved in 2019.

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