Facility Planning

Expansion plan for University of California San Francisco calls for 1,263 housing units

The plan for improving the medical research campus calls for 2 million square feet of additional space, including a new hospital.
Jan. 8, 2021
2 min read

The University of California San Francisco  has reached an agreement with the city to boost the housing, transit and jobs programs that are part of its massive expansion plan for its Parnassus campus.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the university will build 1,263 new housing units for students, faculty and staff, which would more than double the school's entire housing stock in the city.

By 2050, 40% of those units will be affordable for people making less than 120% of the area median income. The commitment is an increase from the university's earlier proposal to build 762 housing units

The university, a medical research institution, wants to build 2 million square feet of space, including a new hospital that will replace an aging facility that fails to meet current state seismic regulations. Inadequate capacity also forces the hospital to turn away thousands of patients per year.

The plan has drawn opposition from neighbors who also were critical of the university's earlier growth in the 1970s.

If approved, construction is expected to start in 2023; the new hospital would begin receiving patients in 2030. The university also will contribute around $20 million for transit improvements.

The project will add 4,680 university jobs, and the school will seek to hire local residents for 30% of entry-level positions. Another 1,000 temporary construction jobs will be created for the hospital and subject to the same 30% local hire goal.

The University of California Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the project's master plan environmental review by Jan. 21. A separate environmental review of the hospital is expected to go to a regents vote by late 2021.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy has been writing about education for American School & University since 1999. He also has reported on schools and other topics for The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Kansas City Times and City News Bureau of Chicago. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.

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