Sports

Judge To Rule Soon On UC Berkeley Oak Grove Case

BERKELEY (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― University of California, Berkeley officials asked a judge Thursday to let them start building a new sports center that has inspired an 18-month-long tree-sitting protest, saying delays are costing them thousands per day.  The judge promised she would rule soon on the request.

During a two-hour hearing, campus officials asked Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller to modify an injunction blocking construction, saying they've met legal requirements and it's not fair to student athletes to slow the project down any longer.

Attorney Charles Olson said delays were costing $47,000 a day in security and rising construction costs. 

"We've got to stop the bleeding, your honor," he told Miller. "We need to stop the bleeding. It has to stop soon... construction costs now are astronomical."

But attorneys on the other side urged the judge not to give the campus a green light.

"The fact is when you cut these trees down, they're not growing back in our lifetimes," said Michael B. Lozeau, attorney for the Panoramic Hill Association, a neighborhood group opposing the new sports center. "If the trees are cut, they're gone."

In addition to the neighborhood group, the center is opposed by the City of Berkeley and the California Oak Foundation on environmental and earthquake safety grounds the training facility will be next to Memorial Stadium, which is bisected by the Hayward fault.

The loudest opposition has come from a band of tree-sitters occupying an oak grove that would be cut to make room for the center.

Campus officials, who have a separate court order allowing them to boot the sitters have stepped up their eviction efforts in recent weeks. But a trio of tree-sitters was still hanging on as of Thursday.

Miller blocked construction in January 2007, issuing an injunction while the lawsuits was pending. Following a trial, Miller issued a 129-page ruling in June on the suits, with both sides in the case claiming victory.

But Miller noted Thursday that the university was "the primary prevailing party" in the case. She sided with them on most points while saying she had remaining questions about a few aspects of the project.
 
Campus lawyers responded by eliminating the items Miller questioned and arguing that leaves no reason not to lift the injunction.

Olson said delays aren't fair to student athletes who now have "the worst training and medical facilities in the Pac 10." He said lifting the stay wouldn't necessarily mean immediate logging of the trees, saying there are a number of pre-construction activities that could be done.
 
The attorneys for all three plaintiffs said they would like to have at least 30 days after Miller issues her ruling to seek a stay that would continue to stop the project until they can appeal Miller's ruling. The appeals process could take 12-15 months.

Stephen Volker, the attorney for the California Oak Foundation, maintained that if Miller lifted the injunction against the project, he was "confident" the plaintiffs could get a stay and win the case on appeal.

"We expect to prevail on more issues" if the case goes to the appellate courts, he said.

But at the hearing, Olson told Miller that the university would request that the plaintiffs in the case be required to post a bond of $1.5 million a month if they appeal a potentially adverse ruling by her.

Volker called Olson's request "shameful" because he said the university knows that the California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill Association wouldn't be able to afford to post a bond if the city of Berkeley, which has deeper pockets, decided not to join an appeal.
 
Berkeley City Council scheduled executive sessions for Friday and Tuesday nights so that it can decide on an appeal if necessary.

Volker said the university's request for a requirement to post a bond "is a strategy to strip us of our right to appeal" and "would slam the courthouse door on our face."

During Thursday's hearing though, Miller indicated she was also considering an order that the university be reimbursed for some of its legal costs during the protracted court battle.

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