UCSF’s EIR does not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act

Because the expansion may have significant impacts on the environment, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) required that UCSF prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and circulate it to the public. The reason for an EIR is to provide the public and decision makers (here, the Regents) with information on a planned project’s environmental impacts. An EIR must find ways to reduce a project’s environmental impacts, and must also consider other less environmentally damaging alternatives to a proposed project. Here, UCSF released a 2000 page EIR in July, and allowed only 60 days for public comment – denying a request to extend the public comment period in the midst of the ongoing COVID pandemic. The EIR that UCSF prepared is deficient in many ways. For example, the EIR incorrectly claimed that UCSF did not need to analyze the way that its planned 16 story tower will eliminate many public scenic vistas in Cole Valley and the Inner Sunset. The EIR improperly downplayed the amount of air pollution the project will cause, leading the EIR to misrepresent the actual risks that the project will present. And although the project will cast shadows on Golden Gate Park and the Grattan Playground, result in more than 6,000 bird deaths a year, increase housing demand, and make traffic worse – the EIR improperly dismissed all of these impacts as “less than significant.” The Parnassus Neighborhood Coalition, and several other community groups, submitted detailed comments to the Regents explaining the many ways that the EIR is inadequate. These comments can be viewed below. We expect that a revised EIR will be submitted to the Regents for approval in early 2021. The Regents’ approval of the EIR can be challenged in a California Superior Court. The law firms representing these groups have extensive experience in litigating CEQA matters, and have had many successes against the University of California.

Read the response to UCSF’s EIR by Lozeau Drury

Read the response to UCSF’s EIR by Law Offices of Thomas Lippe

Read the response to UCSF’s EIR by Wittwer/Parkin

 Read the response from the Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium. (The current UCSF proposal in Parnassus Heights is absolutely insane.)