The City of Berkeley Versus The University Of California At Berkeley

The University’s ambition to build a 125 million dollar new stadium has hit a snag. Over the last year I have witnessed numerous postings about saving Berkeley’s oak trees from the wrath of UC Berkeley’s new stadium bulldozers. It appears the trees, neighbors, and city officials may have won a major victory.

On January 29th Bloomberg.com posted that the Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller issued a preliminary injunction barring the University from removing the trees. Barbara Miller cited that the removal of the trees would cause, “irreparable harm.” It currently looks like the city of Berkeley and the environmental groups will likely succeed in blocking the universities construction. You can see more about the cities position on this conflict at the city of Berkeley’s web site.

The New York Times and Monterey County Herald also noted that the project was challenged not only on the basis of the oak trees, but also based on the Hayward fault that would bisect the proposed project. The University maintains that the project is seismically safe and that the new stadium is a big improvement over the current structure. It will be interesting to see if the University will continue the fight for this site, or if this injunction will force them to identify another location.