UC Santa Cruz shifting ahead on mission to extend scholar housing, broaden childcare providers
The University of California Board of Regents today granted financial and project approvals for Student Housing West to allow the campus to move forward with development. The campus will be soliciting bids for the first phase of the project later this year, with a goal of beginning construction in early 2024.
Student Housing West accommodates more than 3,000 students. The project, which spans two campus locations, also allows UC Santa Cruz to expand childcare services.
Student Housing West offers the quickest, most direct route to creating more student and graduate housing. Stable, affordable housing is a foundation for academic success, one of the highest priorities on campus.
“An education at UC Santa Cruz is transformative, and studies have consistently shown that students must meet basic needs in order to be successful. Student Housing West will help us meet the housing needs of our students,” said Chancellor Cynthia Larive. “I am grateful that we are finally moving forward with this project.”
A number of local elected officials offered their support for the project. Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley traveled to San Francisco for the Board of Regents meeting and told UC leaders that he supports the university and Student Housing West and that the Santa Cruz City Council voted unanimously in support of the project have voted. County Supervisor Zach Friend also pushed for approval, citing the tremendous local need for more college housing and the connection between housing and student success in a letter to the board.
In the first phase of the Student Housing West project, UC Santa Cruz will build 140 new two-bedroom apartments for students with families, a community room and a daycare center. The new early childhood education center will accommodate up to 140 children of faculty, staff and students, approximately double the capacity of our current facility. The new Family Student Housing Community will be adjacent to the intersection of Hagar and Coolidge Drives, across the street from existing staff housing, near a local elementary school and near the main campus entrance. The new shared apartment is expected to open for students with families in autumn 2025.
After construction of the new Family Student Housing Community, UC Santa Cruz will remove the aging buildings currently housing students with families so the campus can construct six new buildings that will provide housing for approximately 2,700 undergraduate and 220 graduate students. The campus anticipates that the second phase could be completed in fall 2028.
There are currently limited on-campus housing options for high school undergraduate and graduate students. Many of these students must find housing in the surrounding community, which, like much of the state, faces a severe housing crisis.
All of these new beds on campus are in addition to the approximately 600 that the campus is adding through the ongoing renovation and expansion of Kresge College.
In addition to providing significantly more housing, Student Housing West will advance the campus’ longstanding commitment to sustainability. The project includes solar panels and other energy-efficient design features, as well as a water recycling facility that will allow UC Santa Cruz to reuse wastewater for non-potable purposes such as toilet flushing and irrigation.
Regents certified the project’s environmental impact report and approved the terms and conditions and design in March 2019. The project has since been mired in court, with lawsuits challenging Regency approval and EIR certification. The Santa Cruz County Supreme Court has twice upheld the appropriateness of the EIR, as has the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Regents re-approved the project in March 2021. A final appeal from a project opponent is pending.
“The development of Student Housing West is a milestone for our campus and I’m happy for the students who will ultimately benefit from it, but university leadership understands that a single project will not solve our housing problems,” Chancellor Larive said. “We will continue to tirelessly seek additional housing options for our students, faculty and staff.”
frequently asked Questions
What will happen to student accommodation west?
To advance plans to build housing for more than 3,000 students, UC Santa Cruz secured funding and project approvals from the UC Board of Regents. This means the campus can solicit bids to build a new residential complex for students with families at the intersection of Hagar and Coolidge drives. This first phase of the project will include 140 two-bedroom apartments, a community room and a new early childhood education centre.
When will construction of the first phase start?
UC Santa Cruz will be soliciting construction bids later this year, with a goal of beginning construction in early 2024. The Family Student Housing community is expected to open in fall 2025.
When will construction of the second phase start?
Once the new residential community for family students opens, UC Santa Cruz will be able to demolish aging buildings and construct new housing for upper division undergraduate and graduate students along Heller Drive on the west side of campus. This phase of the project will include six new buildings that will provide housing for approximately 2,700 undergraduate and 220 postgraduate students. The campus expects this construction to be completed by fall 2028.
Why was the project delayed?
Student Housing West was first approved in early 2019, despite lawsuits preventing the campus from meeting its original schedule for building more housing.
How has funding changed?
UC Santa Cruz has received approval from the UC Board of Regents to implement Student Housing West as a campus-managed capital project. The project was originally proposed and approved as a public-private partnership. Shifting to UC funding is cheaper than private funding and allows UC Santa Cruz to move forward in the most cost-effective and expeditious manner without further delays from ongoing litigation.
