Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinion in Make UC a Good Neighbor v. Regents of University of California. (Briefs here; oral argument video here.)
The case involves UC Berkeley’s plan to build student housing on the current site of People’s Park. The issues are: (1) Does the California Environmental Quality Act (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) (CEQA) require public agencies to consider as an environmental impact the increased social noise generated by student parties that a student housing project might bring to a community? (2) Under CEQA, when a lead agency has identified potential sites for future development and redevelopment in a programmatic planning document, is the agency required to revisit alternative locations for a proposed site-specific project within the program? The court granted review in May 2023 and later requested supplemental briefing on the significance of post-review-granted legislation that might resolve the case. More about the case here and here. Horvitz & Levy represents the Regents and other defendants in the Supreme Court.
This will be the first of six opinions for cases argued in April. The opinions in the five other cases are expected by July 1. Additional argued but undecided cases are the nine on the early-May calendar (opinions expected by August 5), the nine on the late-May calendar (opinions expected by August 19, except for the opinion in Castellanos v. State of California, which, because of post-argument briefing, isn’t expected until August 29), and the seven on the just-completed June calendar.
The Make UC opinion can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.