A draft report on the potential environmental effects of a new building to house the University of California, Davis', departments of Mathematics and Statistics is available for public review and comment.

The four-story, 65,000-square-foot Mathematical Sciences Building will provide space for faculty and staff offices, office support space, conference and seminar rooms, and computer laboratories. It will be located on the site of the former UC Davis Hog Barn, on California Avenue north of the Academic Surge Building, south of the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory and east of Engineering Unit III.

The building will house the Department of Mathematics, Department of Statistics and the new Center for Computational Science and Engineering. The central location will position it close to engineering and physical sciences departments such as geology and physics, as well as laboratories and resources in the Academic Surge Building.

The project will also release space in Kerr Hall, current home of the mathematics and statistics departments, for other uses.

The proposed project is consistent with the land-use designations of the 1994 Long Range Development Plan. The draft study found that most of the potential environmental impacts would be mitigated by measures described in the environmental impact report (EIR) for the LRDP, as updated and amended to date. The draft study sets out mitigation measures for the additional impacts.

The proposed building will be on the site of the UC Davis Hog Barn, which meets the criteria for listing on the California Register of Historic Places. Three options are being considered for the Hog Barn: relocation to another site on the central campus; relocation to a site on the western campus; and demolition. The Hog Barn is no longer in use as a research facility, all hogs having been moved to a new facility in 2001.

A brief public notice including a project description and a summary of potential impacts is available on the Web at http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview/.

Copies of the study are available at: the UC Davis Office of Resource Management and Planning in 376 Mrak Hall on campus; the reserve desk of the Shields Library on campus; the Yolo County Public Library, 315 East 14th St., Davis; the Vacaville Public Library, 1020 Ulatis Drive, Vacaville; and on the Web at http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview/.

There will be a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2002, to receive testimony as part of the formal record on the draft report. The hearing will be held in the East Conference Room of the Memorial Union building on campus.

Written comments on the draft study can be submitted up to 5 p.m. on Oct. 21, 2002. Comments should be addressed to John Meyer, Office of Resource Management and Planning, UC Davis.

More information:
-- http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview/