As proposed, the view of Student Housing West's Heller Drive site, viewed from Porter College from UCSC's News Center https://news.ucsc.edu/2018/05/shw-meetings.html?ref=share

As proposed, Student Housing West—spread over two sites, Heller Drive and Hagar Drive—will provide housing for 3,000 students. Most of the new housing units will support upper division undergraduates and graduate students at the Heller Drive site, though the project will also create new housing for students with families on Hagar Drive as well as a child care center that will serve campus employees and students.

Chancellor George Blumenthal and Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Marlene Tromp announced May 15 that they decided to extend the comment period to 5 p.m., June 27 and hold additional meetings so that the campus can have a more robust discussion on the proposed project and alternatives to the proposed project. The public hearings to receive public comments on the draft EIR will be held: 5–7 p.m., June 6 at the Merrill College Cultural Center and 6:30–8:30 p.m., June 7 at the Louden Nelson Community Center.

Following the end of the extended public comment period on June 27, the campus will evaluate all comments, from both the original comment period and the extended one, bearing in mind the project goals, which include providing affordable housing for students, and mitigating the displacement of students with families, and the goals of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to identify and avoid or reduce environmental impacts, to the extent feasible.

Written comments on the draft EIR may also be emailed to eircomment@ucsc.edu and submitted to Alisa Klaus, UC Santa Cruz, Physical Planning & Construction, 1156 High St , Mailstop: PPDO, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

To read the Santa Cruz Group Sierra Club Comments on the draft EIR click here.  The Sierra Club has serious concerns about this project’s impact on the environment, many of which cannot be mitigated. Many of the proposed mitigations are inadequate for the task.