Albany Village Graduate Student Housing

Albany Village Graduate Student Housing

The action at issue is the approval of ground lease business terms, a subsequent implementing approval for the Albany Village Graduate Student Housing Project (Housing Project). The Housing Project was approved in July 2021 pursuant to a CEQA Addendum, and includes development of a new six-story residential building with 761 beds and an associated surface parking lot, construction of a 6,000 sf replacement structure for the College of Natural Resources, and a 4,500 sf recreation building. In January 1998, the Regents of the University of California (Regents) approved the University Village & Albany/Northwest Berkeley Properties Draft Master Plan (1998 Master Plan) and certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (SCH# 97072039) that evaluated the environmental effects of the 1998 Master Plan’s implementation. The 1998 Master Plan was amended in 2004 (2004 Master Plan) and, in March 2004, the Regents certified a Subsequent EIR (2004 Subsequent EIR) (SCH #1997072039) to the 1998 EIR to evaluate the 2004 Master Plan. In July 2021, the Regents approved the Housing Project in reliance on an Addendum to the 1998 EIR and 2004 Subsequent EIR, prepared to document that the Housing Project is consistent with the 2004 Master Plan and that its potential environmental effects are within the scope of those addressed in the 1998 EIR and 2004 Subsequent EIR. The Addendum also documents that none of the conditions describes in Public Resources Code Section 21166 or CEQA Guidelines Section 15162 or 15164 calling for preparation of a subsequent or supplemental EIR have occurred. The Addendum was not challenged during the applicable statute of limitations and is thus conclusively presumed to comply with CEQA pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21167.2. There have been no changes to the Housing Project evaluated in the Addendum or changes in circumstances that would require major revisions of the EIR, and no new information, which was not known and could not have been known at the time the Addendum was considered, has become available. Therefore, pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21166 and CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, no subsequent or supplemental review is required.

Albany

Alameda

San Francisco Bay Area