Posted on 07/22/2008 9:09:39 PM PDT by SmithL
Berkeley -- UC Berkeley can build its proposed athlete training center, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled late today, handing a crucial victory to the university in a protracted battle marked by a highly publicized protest by tree-sitters since December 2006.
The long-awaited ruling by Judge Barbara Miller said the university has overcome the legal barriers to the project, which has been blocked by a court injunction since February 2007.
Miller said the injunction can be lifted in a week. She postponed the removal of the injunction for seven days to give opponents an opportunity to appeal to the state Court of Appeal.
The decision came as a blow to the three plaintiffs that sought to block the facility - the City of Berkeley, the California Oak Foundation and a neighborhood group, the Panoramic Hill Association. Miller ordered them to pay 85 percent of court costs.
"We're very pleased with the ruling," said Charles Olson, lead attorney for the university. He said the court costs haven't been tallied yet but that they would be in the six figures.
Stephan Volker, attorney for the California Oak Foundation, said the group will file an immediate appeal, possibly as early as Wednesday. He said he's confident that the Court of Appeal will overturn Miller's decision.
Three protesters remain in one tree at the site where the university wants to cut 44 trees in a grove of oaks, redwoods and cypress to build the student-athlete facility next to the stadium.
The protest at one point was waged by a dozen or more tree-sitters on platforms on several trees, but the aerial encampment was sharply reduced in June in a crackdown by the university
... Erik Eisenberg, better known by his protest name "Ayr," said tonight that the tree-sit will continue despite the ruling.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
TIIIIIMMMMBBBEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
Easy solution....
Athletics at Berkeley.......
Joint rolling???
put a truckload of mattresses down on the ground...send a helo up with a loudspeaker to git everybody in the trees looking up. Send ur team up or use cherrypickers and bucket trucks and throw everybody down on them thar mattresses. take pix and lol at them.
Crisis over : )
I'm pretty torn here. I don't know who I want to lose worse. Dumpstermuffin or Bizerkly.
Let's just fine everyone $10Billion and use the money to drill off the coast.
It’s about frigging time....Us Cal fans hate these morons who are not students and most are from out of state... and only a handful of recalitrants actually support them.. The fans for the most part hate the City of Berkeley as well, remember, U.C. Berkeley is NOT the City of Berkeley... an entirely different animal...it is not the 60s anymore at Cal
My Smith and Wesson catalog finally came in, and those pics might just accelerate me into purchasing a .45 with added scope.
I dunno, our son is taking summer school out there and Obama signs were the only ones I saw! Still, a nice campus.
Well of course most universities show a liberal bent including Cal..but it is not activist anymore like the City is...in fact, the single largest student affiliated group is the College Republicans .... who would have thought that?..
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