UC Berkeley Sees Need for Adding 2M SF

BERKELEY, CA-The University of California at Berkeley this week released a draft long range development plan that predicts the need for up to two million sf of additional academic buildings on and around the campus over the next 15 years.Formally called the draft UC Berkeley 2020 Long Range Development Plan, it provides detailed data on how the campus may change in the coming decades. The projected additional academic space would be an 18% increase over what currently exists. As well, the plan foresees as much as a 30% increase in student housing (2,600 new beds) and as much as a 32% increase in parking (2,300 new spaces). According to the plan, between 75% and 80% of this new academic space would be on the core campus and on blocks just west of campus, where the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley also are currently working together on plans for a hotel-conference center-museum complex. Additionally, the plan anticipates the creation of up to 2,870 new jobs on campus by 2020. The total campus headcount–faculty, student, staff, vendors and visitors–would grow as much as 12%, from 45,940 in 2002 to 51,260 by 2020. This compares to a projected population growth of 6% for the city of Berkeley and 20% for the San Francisco Bay Area region. The public comment period for the draft 2020 LRDP and EIR opened Thursday and will continue through June 14. Ultimately, a final document will be created and submitted in the fall to the UC Board of Regents for consideration for approval and certification. Each campus in the UC system is required by the Board of Regents to create a new long range development plan and environmental analysis every 15 to 20 years. UC Berkeley’s current plan was adopted in 1990. The first new construction proposed under the plan is the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies. The project would consist of two buildings located on the central campus near Doe Library and Observatory Hill. It would provide offices classrooms and lounges for UC Berkeley’s East Asian Library and academic programs focused on East Asia.