Water Coalition files another challenge to UCSC expansion: Group contends environmental report isn't adequate

SANTA CRUZ -- Opponents of university growth filed an additional court challenge Friday against UC Santa Cruz's request for expanded city water service, arguing that an environmental study approved last month was insufficient.

The Community Water Coalition argues that the state-required environmental impact report connected to the university's application for receiving water beyond the city's current territory is flawed because the city, not the university, should have made the request.

The significant difference, coalition members argue, is that extending water into a 374-acre undeveloped area in the north campus requires an amendment to the city's general plan, which sets boundaries for water service. Because any change to the general plan must be approved by the City Council after a public hearing, critics argue that the city is doing an end run around its own residents by having UCSC petition the Santa Cruz Local Agency Formation Commission to receive the expanded water service.

"By allowing the university to apply, they are circumventing their current rules," said Bill Parkin, an attorney representing the coalition. "An amendment to the general plan may go through, but there is a process for that to happen in which citizens can weigh in."

Planning Director Juliana Rebagliati said the general plan would not require a general plan amendment because the general plan already calls for annexing the entire university area for water service,

City officials also say the legal challenge is simply another attempt to halt university expansion and upend a 2008 settlement agreement that controls campus growth by increasing on-campus housing to accommodate 3,000 more students. The pact signed by the city, county, UCSC and citizen groups was designed to reduce impacts on traffic and water use if the campus eventually grows to 19,500 students -- about an 18 percent jump -- within the next 10 years.