SANTA CRUZ — A decide has sided with the town of Santa Cruz authorities’ assertion that it's not obligated to supply water service to match future UC Santa Cruz growth.
Santa Cruz County Superior Courtroom Choose Timothy Volkmann’s Aug. 30 ruling comes on account of a breach of contract lawsuit filed towards the town in October 2020. On the time, attorneys for the College of California Board of Regents and UC Santa Cruz introduced the go well with in a joint assertion with the town. UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive and then-Santa Cruz Mayor Justin Cummings described the authorized motion because the college’s effort to “search readability,” a mutually agreed-upon step to settle an deadlock in a long-brewing disagreement.
In subsequent courtroom filings, college attorneys claimed that the town had dedicated to supplying the campus — significantly the northern edge that falls outdoors Santa Cruz’s borders — with water utilities, as codified in contractual agreements in 1962 and 1965.
In response to an inquiry Tuesday associated to the latest ruling, UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason careworn that the courtroom proceedings had been targeted on service entry, quite than the extra hotly contested native water utilization debate sparked throughout latest droughts. Campus water utilization has declined at the same time as its pupil physique has grown up to now 25 years, he mentioned.
“UC Santa Cruz is barely asking that the Metropolis of Santa Cruz fulfill the guarantees it made when it sought to steer the Regents to construct a campus in Santa Cruz — guarantees set out in plain language — to supply water service,” Hernandez-Jason wrote in an emailed response to the Sentinel.
In a launch from the Santa Cruz Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace on Tuesday, the town mentioned the decide agreed the 1962 and 1965 contracts solely required the town to supply water supply infrastructure of a specified capability to the college campus border, and to invoice the college at charges akin to different water prospects — a service presently ongoing by the town. A replica of the decide’s ruling was not out there in courtroom data Tuesday afternoon.
Metropolis leaders had beforehand balked on the asserted water service requirement when UCSC officers laid out the potential for future campus growth throughout its 2005 Lengthy Vary Growth Plan replace. In newer courtroom filings, the town argued that it was not robotically required to supply the extra water service. Attorneys wrote that UCSC additionally would want to use to the Santa Cruz Native Company Formation Fee, which oversees jurisdictional boundary points, so as to add a brand new water connection serving unincorporated county land. UCSC officers disagreed, saying it was exempt from such necessities.
Volkmann additionally dominated that UCSC might want to search an opinion from the Native Space Formation Fee on whether or not or not the town is exempt from in search of the physique’s permission to supply water service outdoors its jurisdictional boundary.
Requested how the decide’s determination have an effect on future campus improvement methods, Hernandez-Jason mentioned water service throughout the residential campus “would assist UC Santa Cruz construct housing, lecture rooms, and house for analysis and artistic scholarship, and fulfill its dedication to the area people and college, workers, and college students.”
“We're dissatisfied with the courtroom’s ruling and are figuring out our subsequent steps,” Hernandez-Jason added.