Threats to Strawberry Canyon

The map below, from the Lab's 2006 Long Range Development Plan, shows the boundaries of land transferred from UC Berkeley jurisdiction to LBNL, which is a designated National Laboratory site under contract with the Department of Energy (DOE). A nearly imperceptible process has changed the natural environment in this area and our relationship to it.

Since 2006, the first major encroachment into Strawberry Canyon was the Molecular Foundry, an imposing building of 96,000 gsf*, built on unstable soils, without a full environmental review. The Foundry is seen in the mid-ground of the photo to the right.

(* gsf — gross square feet — refers to the total square feet of all floor space and other spaces within a building, as measured from the outside walls.)

The Long Range Development Plan (LRDP)
After the construction of the Molecular Foundry, the Regents of UC Berkeley certified an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). The LDRP is the basis for future potential growth at the Lab until 2025 and, consequently, has been the impetus for a series of proposed projects. The LRDP and associated documents are available here in PDF format. See a description of legal challenges to the LDRP here.

The LDRP would increase the Lab from the current level of 1.76 million square feet of occupiable space, about 4,375 people, and 2300 parking spaces, up to 2.42 million gsf of occupiable space, 5,375 people and 2,800 parking spaces. Planned development includes the construction of 980,000 gsf of new building space, some as high as eight stories, and the demolition of 320,000 gsf of existing structures for a net development total of 660,000 gsf of new buildings at the Lab.

These plans have ignored the unstable geological conditions of the hills to the east of the campus where most of the new construction is planned, even though a University geologist explained the danger in a Letter to the UC Regents, strongly recommending that "Major buildings of any kind should not be constructed in either of these canyons bordering this huge block of unstable rock." See also videos explaining these dangers.

In addition to causing further impairment of the Strawberry Creek watershed and destruction of the natural landscape, construction would also cause daily environmental degredation and pollution. In order to implement the expansion, the Lab will have to mobilize tens of thousands of truck trips, averaging at least 4,000 one-way haul truck trips per year and, during peak construction times, up to 10,000 one-way truck trips per year or 65 trips per day, all of them roaring through Berkeley at about 85 decibels (dBA) and spewing toxic diesel particulate matter as they pass as close as 30 feet to Berkeley residences. Those truck trips are in addition to the diesel trucks that will visit the expanded Lab for deliveries, waste hauling and other functions, as well as the thousands of trucks necessary to implement the 1 million square feet of construction projects planned for the adjacent U.C. Berkeley campus.

Alternate sites for new facilities such as those proposed in the LRDP does exist: read about them here.

Computational Research and Theory Facility (CRT)

The first CRT project, a 140,000 gsf structure, was proposed for the undeveloped bluff dotted with eucalyptus and oak trees above Hearst Avenue and Cyclotron Road in Blackberry Canyon, which is drained by the North Fork of Strawberry Creek. (See this letter of comment about the Draft Environmental Report of this project from the Bay Area Architectural Heritage Association.)

Due to a decision rendered in federal court (Save Strawberry Canyon v. Department of Energy) this proposal was halted until proper compliance with the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is completed by DOE. Consequently, a second CRT project was presented in an Environmental Assessment (EA) in 2010, redesigned to have an enlarged footprint (see map below).

USDOE. 9/2010. CRT Facility Draft EA. Fig. 3.0-1, p. 3.0-3
(rotated to correspond to previous map)

See also this project description on the LBNL website. Read about the legal challenges to CRT and its current status on our Legal Actions page.

Helios Energy Research Facility (Helios)

The Helios facility, proposed in 2007 with financial support from BP to house a new Energy Biosciences Institute and related projects, was to be prominently located in Strawberry Canyon. The proposed site for the 160,000 gsf seven-story building was in a recognized landslide area below the Botanical Garden's Mather Redwood Grove. (See this Feb. 2008 letter from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association commenting on the draft Environmental Impact Report for this project.) Despite knowing of a "significant lens of colluvial material [area of unstable soil] underneath the building footprint," the Regents intially approved the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in May 2008, although it had been greeted with public protest. The controversial solution to the problem of the underlying unstable soil was to "remove this material and replace it with an engineered backfill." The Helios building project also included constructing an access road from Centennial Drive and a 250-seat auditorium. The project would have destroyed 150 mature native trees.

A Legal Challenge and a Redesign
After a strong legal challenge by Save Strawberry Canyon, the UC Regents decertified the Helios Environmental Impact Report. LBNL then proposed a second version of the project in the same vicinity but relocated as shown in the map below.

This second version of Helios spread out on the landscape with a larger footprint and encroached further into the valley floor. It was to be located in the Chicken Creek sub basin, one of the two main tributaries of Strawberry Creek. The project also added an access road off Centennial Drive. Articles in the East Bay Express and Berkeley Daily Planet describe the controversy that greeted this new Helios plan.

Another Redesign
After the protests against the new Helios plan and a close review of the site, the Regents abandoned it before producing an Environmental Impact Report and instead announced a decision to divide Helios into two projects:

The SERC Project
The SERC project, part of the new Helios plan, would involve construction of an approximately 40,000 gsf building in the older section of LBNL south of the Lawrence Hall of Science (see map to right), reconfiguration of approximately 200 linear feet of service road, and reconfiguration of existing parking (see EIR Notice). SERC is proposed to be primarily dedicated to nanotechnology research ("...focused on developing fuels from sunlight using nanoscale...energy systems" — see the project description).

Read about legal actions concerning SERC and the Helios project.

The Seismic Life Safety, Modernization, and Replacement of General Purpose Buildings, Phase 2 Project proposes demolishing several structures, retrofitting the Hazardous Waste Handling Facility (Bldg. 85) , and constructing a new General Purpose Laboratory (GPL), 60% of which is designed for offices. See project documents at the LBNL website. See our Legal Actions page for information about challenges to the Seismic...Phase 2 project.

General Purpose Laboratory (GPL)
The GPL component of the Seismic Phase 2 Project, first announced in December 2008, was to be located adjacent to the Botanical Garden in Strawberry Canyon. Due to continuing pressure from Save Strawberry Canyon and others, LBNL relocated the 43,000 gsf laboratory to Blackberry Canyon, which is in the upper watershed of Strawberry Creek (see the map to the right). For more details see the Project website.

Hazardous Waste Handling Facility
The Hazardous Waste Handling Facility (Building 85) already exists in the slide-ridden East Canyon area of Strawberry Canyon (see this Geologic Map of the East Canyon Area and this simpler map of nearby faults and landslides). Determined to be unsafe and vulnerable due to a recent landslide, this building is proposed to be restablized with new drilled piers.

Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA)

In 2009, Building 71 (constructed in 1957) was proposed to be reinforced and internally redesigned so that a new accelerator could be added to those already operating in the building — a new experimental laser accelerator designed to generate 10 billion electron volts. The site is located 448 ft. below Campus Drive in Blackberry Canyon in the northwest portion of LBNL (see map below).

A FINAL Environmental Assessment was published by the U.S. Dept. of Energy in September, 2009. See our Legal Actions page for our response to the BELLA project and its current legal status.

Read about legal actions taken against the LRDP projects.

An Alternative Site? There do exist viable alternatives to constructing new buildings, roads, and parking lots in the environmentally-sensitive and geologically-unstable Strawberry Canyon area. Read about them here.

Save Strawberry Canyon will continue to oppose dangerous development
If the Long Range Development Plan proceeds unaltered, other projects will also be built in Strawberry Canyon. With your support, Save Strawberry Canyon will continue its efforts to ensure that future development in the canyon does not endanger the natural environment, the cultural legacy of the area, or the lives of those who live and work in its surroundings.