Politics & Government

Court Rejects Suit Challenging UC Development at University Village

An Alameda County Superior Court judge has rejected a lawsuit filed in August, Larsen v. City of Albany, challenging Albany's approval of the environmental impact report for UC Berkeley's development plans at University Village in Albany.

A lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley's commercial development plans for University Village in Albany has been rejected by an Alameda County Superior Court judge.

The decision in the case of Larsen v. City of Albany was posted in a brief announcement on the court website Tuesday. Judge Evelio Grillo heard arguments in the case on May 16.

The attorney for the plaintiffs, Dan Siegal, told Patch Wednesday that he is "very disappointed" in the court's decision and that he is recommending to his clients that they appeal to the state Court of Appeal.

The suit was filed Aug. 20 by Eric Larsen of Albany, later joined by Stefanie Rawlings of Berkeley, who are both members of the Albany Farm Alliance. Rawlings belongs also to Occupy the Farm, an urban farming advocacy group that opposes the university's development plans.

The suit alleged that the Albany City Council's approval in July of the environmental impact report illegally failed to adopt a feasible, smaller-scale alternative that would have removed many of the development's negative impacts. The suit also alleged that the approved EIR improperly failed to assess the project's impact on agricultural resources.

The Occupy group has staged several weekend occupations of a UC-owned lot at San Pablo Avenue and Monroe Street in Albany where UC Berkeley has proposed commercial development anchored by a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store. They urge that the undeveloped land be used for urban agriculture as a demonstration farm and for research.

The city, joined by the university in responding to the suit, argued that the EIR met all the requirements.

The property is part of an original 104-acre Gill tract sold to UC in 1928 by the Gill family, which ran a nursery at the site. Part of has been used for many years by UC Berkeley for agricultural research in furtherance of its duty as a land-grant university. The university continues to conduct agricultural research on a nearby Gill tract plot of about 7 acres located at the southwest corner of San Pablo and Marin avenues. 

Responding to the court decision, Siegel said, "I am very disappointed with the superior court's decision, which I strongly believe to be incorrect. The court correctly concluded that the City of Albany failed to carry out the analyses that were required to justify its decision by failing to conduct thorough analyses of the existing zoning and reduced grocery store options to determine whether either of those alternatives would have satisfied the project's goals with less negative environmental impact. That reasoning should have led the court to overturn the EIR. I believe that its failure to do so violates CEQA and look forward to presenting this argument to the Court of Appeal."

Patch has asked the city if any city officials would like to comment.

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