UC Santa Cruz given conditional approval for new housing project

University of Santa Cruz California has been given conditional approval by the UC Board of Regents for a housing project that has faced some controversy.

The project, Student Housing West, has two sites and would provide close to 3,000 new beds.

It includes high-rise buildings off Heller Drive for undergraduate students and a new family community would be built in the East Meadow near the intersection of Coolidge and Hagar drives.

Students like Kyra Mund say more housing is needed. Her first year trying to find housing off campus almost resorted to her sleeping in a car.

“I didn’t find housing until like two weeks before school, like honestly i didn’t know where I was gonna live, but I really wanted to come here. It caused a lot of anxiety I thought about even buying a van and living in a van,” said Mund.

UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said the school knows housing is tight and is hoping this project will help. “It’s a tremendous expansion in the amount housing we offer and we already offer housing for about half of our undergraduate students,” he said.

Hernandez-Jason added this will not only benefit the students, but Santa Cruz as a whole. “Our hope is to draw these students back to campus where they’ll be able to maintain stronger connections with campus and reduce some of the impact on the community,” he said.

Not everyone has had the same enthusiasm about the project. Concerns have been raised about building on the open landscape that many of the students and staffers love about the campus.

Some say that even though they love that about the university, it’s a fair trade off. “There’s a lot more places to explore, too, so I think it’s a good trade off,” said student Edmond Lau.

There are also concerns about the cost of the East Meadow project. The project as a whole is estimated to cost $750 million.

While it is more housing, some worry they might not be able to take advantage of it. “It’s good that there’s going to be more housing, but I think the pricing is still a big issue,” said Mund.

The regents are reviewing some of the financial statements and are expected to make a decision on the full approval of the project in the next few weeks.