Davis resident Norman Rogers filed a lawsuit this week in Alameda County Superior Court, challenging the construction of a hotel and conference center and a new academic building at the University of California, Davis.

Sited at the I-80 entrance to campus near the Alumni and Visitors Center and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the project includes three buildings: a 75,000-square-foot conference facility with meeting space for 500, a ballroom, restaurant and pub; a 40,000-square-foot hotel with 75 guest rooms, scaled back from 150 guest rooms in response to community concerns about possible negative impacts; and a three-story building to house the Graduate School of Management as well as University Relations units and the Internship and Career Center.

Construction is scheduled to begin by late summer or early fall and to be completed by fall 2004.

Rogers alleges the university's environmental impact report for the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act and that the UC Regents violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act by limiting public comment before approving the project.

The EIR's shortcomings, according to Rogers, include failure to adequately address the project's impacts on land use in Davis, "including blight resulting from the economic and social changes that will be brought on by the project."

Sid England, UC Davis' environmental planner, said the university has complied fully with CEQA.

"We take environmental review very seriously and attempt to incorporate good design and appropriate mitigation measures into our projects to ensure there are no significant impacts on the environment," England said. "Mr. Rogers submitted extensive comments on the draft and the final environmental impact reports, to which we prepared written responses. His lawsuit raises nothing new. We believe we've appropriately addressed the issues."

Rogers' and others' written comments, along with the campus's responses, were provided to the regents before they approved the project at a March 14 meeting.

At that meeting, 18 of the 36 people who had signed up to address the regents spoke before the meeting's public comment period ended. Rogers says in his suit that newly elected Davis City Council member Ted Puntillo, who "had an opposite viewpoint," was lower on the list yet was allowed to speak while Rogers was not.

"The Regents heard from both proponents and opponents and, in addition, always welcome written comment from any member of the public," said regents' spokesperson Brad Hayward. "We certainly believe that no violation of the law occurred."

Another city council member, Sue Greenwald, and then-Mayor Ken Wagstaff, also addressed the regents, opposing the project.

The project has received the endorsement of the Davis Area Chamber of Commerce, the Davis Downtown Business Association and local hotel owners, and the support of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.

"I am surprised a lawsuit has been filed," said Dennis Lindsay, chair of the Davis Chamber of Commerce board of directors. "It would seem that a more appropriate use of resources would be for UC Davis and the city to work together to ensure the city's and business community's interests are protected under the mitigation plan proposed some months ago by the campus."

Karen Hull, director of the UC Davis Campus Events and Visitor Services office, said the conference center and hotel would provide a much-needed venue for state, national and international academic conferences, and an opportunity for the university to more adequately host visitors, alumni and the business community.

"Without these new facilities, our ability to host an academic conference of any size during the academic year is extremely limited," Hull said. "We're routinely forced to take a large number of our academic conferences out of the area because of inadequate space."

John Yates, special projects director for the campus, said he hoped the lawsuit wouldn't delay the project. "The current low interest rates won't stay this way for long," Yates said. "Just one percent increase in rates means another $250,000 in annual mortgage payments. Then there are the increases in construction costs with a delay. Stopping the project now for a lawsuit would likely add upwards of $3 million to the project's cost."

Robert Smiley, dean of the Graduate School of Management, also expressed concern about a possible delay in the project.

"Our present building doesn't allow for optimal education of our students," Smiley said. "The new building will allow us to do a much better job of educating managers for this region.

"Additionally, we're considering moving our Working Professional MBA program to campus in fall 2004, which dovetails nicely with the new building's planned completion date. Our Sacramento building's lease is due to expire in June 2005, so if the project is delayed much at all, we'll have a problem."