Three activist groups have asked a state judge to reject the University of California-San Francisco's environmental impact study clearing the way for a $3 billion, 30-year hospital and housing expansion at its Parnassus Heights campus, Courthouse News Service reported April 4.
The project would include 1,200 units of student and faculty housing and replace a 70-year-old hospital that does not meet California's earthquake-resistance standards, but the study used by the university's board of regents to OK the project did not adequately assess its environmental impact, including 30 years of noise pollution and congestion, the activists argued.
Lawyers for the Parnassus Neighborhood Coalition, San Franciscans for Balanced and Livable Communities and Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium also said the university did not fully consider other sites for the project.
"Their rationale was we want to do everything at Parnassus. It is not a legal rationale. They made no effort to see how they could try to accomplish their objectives at any of the other sites. That’s a blatant error," public interest attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley said at a hearing on the matter, according to Courthouse News Service.
Representing the university, Charles Olson said its regents have been looking at the issue for 20 years.
"Parnassus is turning away more than 3,000 patient referrals every year because they don’t have enough beds. This year 4,000 are being turned away. So they looked at this, the need for more beds at Parnassus," Mr. Olson said at the hearing.
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