The four-acre parcel of land north of Eleanor Roosevelt College may not be anyone’s paradise, but the ‘nation’s greenest university’ can’t expect to pave it and put up a parking lot without a little opposition.
More than 1,000 transfer students will settle into the new North Campus Housing complex this fall, but the future of their backyard ‘mdash; the remaining strip of land in a four-part landscaping project known as the Wedge ‘mdash; remains uncertain.
In 1994, the UCSD Physical Planning Department proposed that the Wedge become a ‘rustic’ open space linking three upcoming construction projects: ERC, the Rady School of Management and the North Campus Housing Project. The original report mapped out pedestrian trails and planned for natural storm-water drainage from adjacent lots.
In October 2006, after three years of landscaping, the department projected a completion date of June 2009.
Three of the four segments of the Wedge are complete, but due to budget constraints, the Physical Planning and Environmental Health and Safety departments are now in talks with Transportation and Parking Services to devise a temporary, cost-effective use for the site of Wedge Phase Four.
Meanwhile, a coalition of departments and student organizations is urging the administration to tear up the existing pavement once and for all. Suggestions include establishing the space as an organic garden and using it to showcase ecologically sustainable initiatives.
On Feb. 25, the A.S. Council unanimously passed a resolution urging the university to abandon discussion of making the site a parking lot.
The resolution, sponsored by A.S. All-Campus Senator Chris Westling, stated that using the space for parking would be inconsistent with the UCSD Principles of Sustainability ‘mdash; ‘taking from the Earth only what it can provide indefinitely, thus leaving future generations no less than we have access to ourselves.’ The new lot would also fail to adhere to UCSD’s goal of zero waste by 2020, councilmembers said, since pavement is an impermeable surface that harms surrounding ecosystems.
‘If we really want to pursue sustainability at UCSD, we can’t expand parking,’ Westling said. ‘Every surface lot on campus is technically a ‘Ocirc;temporary parking lot,’ but there is a very high possibility that things can get put on the back burner and stay on the back burner for a very long time.’
The Graduate Student Association will vote on a similar resolution next week.
Wedge Phase Four has been paved for decades, and is now occupied by construction equipment and supplies from the North Campus Housing Project.
The final stage of the natural Wedge would cost the university roughly $2 million, according to Brian Gregory, assistant vice chancellor of Strategic Campus Resource Initiatives. Given the growing demand for parking on campus, he said the university is considering the lot as a temporary solution while it secures funds.
‘We have greatly improved water that runs off from [Wedge phases one through three], and that’s why we want to do Wedge Four,’ he said. ‘But in the meantime, we don’t want [the land] to just sit there, so we want to use it for parking until such time that the funding is available.’
Housing and Dining Services has agreed to contribute $500,000 for Wedge Phase Four, but no other funding sources have been confirmed.
This month, the Campus Community Planning Committee will charter a subcommittee ‘mdash; the Open Space Committee ‘mdash; to examine open spaces such as the Wedge. Members will include one undergraduate student, one graduate student and representatives from a number of campus departments.